


Unsung Heroes

by Lightning4119



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: ME3 Multiplayer, Mass Effect 3, Not included in this story: one single solitary fuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-12 04:12:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5651995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightning4119/pseuds/Lightning4119
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story of courage, valor, and and a total lack of given fucks in the face of overwhelming odds.</p><p>A Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer novelization.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Benning - Gladius

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone. The concept for this story started bugging me a while back while I was on Firebase Ghost. It took a while to write, partially because of the ridiculous amount of work I had to put into just laying out the squads, and partly because it's honestly a struggle to write the combat without it getting monotonous, especially because my primary character when I started writing this was my Krogan Warlord Sentinel, and that's just hitting things with my face until everything is dead like a psychotic woodpecker. Updates will not be regular, so please be patient. That said, a few things should be noted.
> 
> First, I'm going to use as many of the classes as I can, and some characters may change classes for in-story reasons. It will be justified.  
> Secondly, Shepard will not be appearing in this story, and I'll be trying to avoid saying anything specific about them. My personal Shepard is a female Paragon Infiltrator who hopped on Garrus ASAP, but the focus here is on the N7 Operations personnel.

_Codex – Systems Alliance – N7 Operations Forces_

_During the Reaper War, Allied forces began recruiting anyone, soldier or mercenary, to serve on the front lines of the conflict. The most experienced operatives formed squads to secure objectives, evacuate civilians, and battle Cerberus, the Reapers, the Collectors, and hostile Geth forces deep in enemy territory._

_Initially led by Alliance N7-qualified marines, these squads were nicknamed the N7 Special Ops. In light of these teams' exemplary service and remarkable bravery, the Alliance allowed this unofficial name to spread across the ranks as a sign of respect for their efforts._

_While most teams did not have N7-certified operatives as members (and many lacked human members entirely) their service in the Reaper War cannot be disregarded. The contribution to the war effort by notable figures like Admiral Steven Hackett, Primarch Adrien Victus, and Commander Shepard has been well-documented by history, but the members of the N7 Special Ops Forces are truly the unsung heroes of the war. The humans, turians, asari, salarians, krogan, batarians, drell, quarians, vorcha, volus, and geth that fought and died to stem the tide of the Reaper advance never gave up and never hesitated to lay down their lives to accomplish their missions. They held the line. This is their story._

**Firebase Ghost, Benning, Euler System, Arcturus Stream**

The UT-47 Kodiak shuttle rocked as it hit Benning's atmosphere, and the three people inside the passenger compartment perked up as their radios chirped. “ _Gladius Team, this is Control_ ,” a male voice called. “ _Briefing time. As you know, Benning fell early in the war as the Reapers hit Arcturus Station. The Reapers have rounded up a large portion of the populace, but pockets of resistance are still holding them back_.” A map flared up in the team’s heads-up displays, with a roughly rectangular area selected. “ _Your task is to hold the indicated neighborhood from incoming Reaper forces until civilians can be evacuated from behind the AOE._ ”

“Control, we’re short one team member here,” one of the passengers objected.

“ _Identify._ ”

“Lieutenant Cass Beck, Alliance Scout-Sniper,” the objecting passenger replied. “We’re missing our vanguard, a drell. He’s still on medical leave.”

“ _Lieutenant, there is an operative already on-site. His armor is still supplying bio-signs, although he is out of radio contact. He’s been holding the area down since the rest of his team was killed almost a week ago._ ”

“A week?” One of the other passengers piped up. “Guy’s got a pair of brass ones, but he must be a basket case at this point, working alone that long.”

“ _On the contrary, he seems to be having the time of his life_.”

Beck winced. “Control, identify species of on-site operative.”

“ _Krogan, lieutenant._ ”

“Oh, great,” the second passenger groaned. “I bet he’s just going to love me.”

“Relax, Tek,” Beck said to the turian soldier. “He’s got bigger problems.”

“Yeah,” the final passenger squeaked. “Like a salarian engineer he might ‘accidentally’ clip with friendly fire.”

“ _Cut the chatter,_ ” Control called. “ _Sensor feeds show the DZ is sixty seconds away. Check your gear, and good luck. Control out._ ”

The Kodiak swung into a hover about a foot off the ground at the southwest corner of the neighborhood, and the trio stepped down to the surface of Benning, weapons up. The turian soldier was lugging a case full of spare thermal clips and grenades, as well as a case of medigel and survival kits to resupply their new teammate.

“Sweet mother of mercy,” Beck breathed, lowering her M-9 Tempest SMG. “This guy _has_ been busy…”

Beck was grateful that her helmet was sealed. The stench would have been unbearable. Dozens of bodies – Reaper, Collector, and humans wearing armor with Cerberus markings – were scattered across the neighborhood in various states of destruction and dismemberment. Several spots were bore large scorch marks where bodies had been piled and set on fire in an attempt to keep the area clear. Mechanical parts that were clearly the remains of geth platforms could be seen at various points on the battlefield. Notably, neat stacks of salvaged enemy weaponry were visible in corners and leaning against buildings, alongside boxes where thermal clips and grenades had been stashed.

“Should probably find him, shouldn’t we,” the salarian muttered as the trio moved east, taking cover in a prefabricated building.

“Can you raise him on the radio, Ignat?” Beck asked, holstering her SMG and drawing her Mantis sniper rifle. Peering through the scope, she scanned for movement, listening in as the engineer called for the missing fourth member of their team.

“Point-to-point transmissions are obviously out,” the salarian muttered, punching up his omni-tool display. “But I’ll try bouncing something off one of the comm drones.” He fiddled with the settings for a moment before speaking. “Krogan operative, krogan operative, this is Gladius team, how copy?” No reply. “Any N7 Special Ops personnel in this region, this is Gladius team, do you copy?”

“Contact,” Beck hissed. “Cannibals.” Tek dropped the supply crate and shouldered his Phaeston assault rifle as Ignat drew the M-77 Paladin that was at his side. “About fifty meters. Tek, if you can lay down a prox mine in front of them, Ignat can draw them in with his decoy.”

“On it,” Tek grunted, sidling out the door and dashing across the street to take cover. Flash-fabricating a proximity mine from his omni-tool, he lobbed it by hand rather than fire it from the under-barrel launcher of his rifle and risk exposing the team’s location. The mine landed on a pillar and deployed, waiting for motion to trigger it.

“Alright, Ignat, you’re up. We’ll pull them through the mine and then pick off whatever’s-” Beck broke off as a light appeared in the building next to the Cannibals. “What the hell?” Her eyes widened as an extremely large krogan wreathed in tech armor panels over coal-black armor with an equally large hammer strapped to his back barreled out from the building, body-checking a Cannibal so hard it flew across the street and slammed into the opposite wall. The krogan swept out his right arm, an M-300 Claymore shotgun held in it, and fired directly into another Cannibal’s face, dropping the creature in a heap. Spinning, the krogan rammed his helmeted forehead into the face of a third Reaper unit, collapsing the creature’s face and knocking it backwards over a barricade. A deep, throaty laugh echoed across the street as the remaining Reaper troops opened fire, hypervelocity rounds pinging off the krogan’s shields.

“New plan, support the krogan!” Beck called, activating her cloak and putting a round through the skull of a Marauder that was attempting to armor up a pair of Cannibals. The turian husk dropped to the ground, headless, and the krogan charged as Ignat lit another pair of Cannibals on fire with a ball of plasma from his omni-tool and Beck reloaded. “Tek, hold the left flank, make sure nothing sneaks up on us!”

“You got it!” the turian called back, tossing another proximity mine, before opening fire.

Beck fired again, and hesitated for a moment as she reloaded. “Is he…is he just headbutting them all?”

“It would seem so,” Ignat replied dryly, letting another plasma burst fly as the krogan introduced helmet plating to Reaper face at high speed. “So long as he headbutts them and not me, I have no problem with that. It certainly seems effective, if not necessarily efficient.” His omni-tool recharging, Ignat triggered a different program, draining the shields of a Marauder.

Beck shrugged, before dropping the vulnerable Marauder with a shot to the head. Reloading, she sighted for another shot, only to see the krogan holster his shotgun and grab the haft of the massive hammer across his back, bringing it down in an overhand swing that crushed a Cannibal’s head into pulp and staggered the two flanking it. A quick and vicious headbutt killed one, and the hammer swung again, stunning the other, as the backswing knocked it further back and a final overhead swing killed the last Reaper creature on the field.

Slinging the hammer, the krogan turned, revealing a large number of looted combat webbing sets layered over his chest. Reloading the Claymore with a thermal clip from one of the webbing sets, he slowly strode across the field, his barriers flickering back into existence as he closed on Beck, Tek, and Ignat.

“Who’re you?” he asked gruffly. Rather than speaking over the radio, his voice was emanating from speakers on his armor.

“Gladius Team, N7 Special Ops,” Beck answered, holstering her Mantis. “Lieutenant Cass Beck, Alliance Special Operations. This is Ignat Anoleis, former STG, and that’s Tek Nazario, Turian Hierarchy.”

“You an engineer?” The krogan growled at Ignat. The salarian nodded. “Good. My radio’s smashed. Collector Scion decided it’d be fun to use my head as a punching bag. Any chance you can fix it?”

“I’ll take a look,” the engineer offered.

“Make it fast,” the krogan replied, yanking his helmet off and revealing amber eyes and a black crest plate. “Next wave will be here soon.”

“Didn’t catch your name,” Beck chimed in as Ignat moved his omni-tool over the helmet, scanning for broken parts.

“Didn’t give it,” the krogan grunted. “You survive this and I’ll tell you my name.”

“What are we supposed to call you, then?” Tek called, laying down another proximity mine. Beck looked over the krogan’s shoulder to see that the turian had landed at least one at virtually every choke-point.

“Urdnot will do,” the krogan replied. “Clan’s all that matters these days anyway.” He accepted the fixed helmet back from Ignat and clicked it into place, the tech armor on his chest blazing back to life. His voice rang over the team’s helmet speakers.  “Ah, good to be back.”

“I synched you up with our IFF codes and radio channels,” Ignat said nervously.

“You’ll do fine,” Urdnot replied, cracking open the supply crate and refilling his armor’s thermal clip systems. “Just stay out of my way.”

“Real team player,” Tek muttered.

Urdnot’s head snapped towards him. “You ever been in front of a charging krogan in a full blood-rage?” The turian shook his head. “It’s not a place you want to be. Look at all the bodies around here and tell me what happens when you get a krogan angry.”

“You really been down here for a week?” Beck asked as Urdnot slotted the medigel packs into the receptacles on his armor.

“Six days, fourteen hours, thirty-two minutes,” Urdnot replied, checking his omni-tool. “Could use a nap, but there’s husks that need killing.”

“Wait, you’ve been awake _the entire time_?” Beck asked in shock.

“Krogan durability,” Urdnot said proudly, changing the ammunition mod in his weapon to phasic rounds, discarding a well-worn armor-piercing mod. “And a truckload of stims when things got bad. Blood-raging a lot makes it hard to sleep, anyway.”

“About that…” Ignat shuffled from foot to foot.

“Relax, froggy, I’m not going to hurt you,” Urdnot chuckled. “Just them. Lots and lots of them.”

“I’m okay with that,” Beck said, unslinging her sniper rifle.

“Good, because here they come,” Urdnot growled, fiddling with his omni-tool. A set of sensor feeds tied to proximity sensors flared on their heads-up displays. “Probably more Cannibals and Marauders. We won’t be seeing the real trouble just yet.” Reaching back, his hand glowed blue as biotic energy wreathed his palm, before a ball of dark energy coalesced at the head of the hammer. “Takes them a while to bring up fresh heavy troops in force for some reason.”

“You’re a biotic?”

“Krogan Battlemaster,” Urdnot replied. “Who wants to play a game?”

“I…what?”

“Whoever gets the least kills has to sit next to me on the shuttle out of here!” Urdnot shouted, charging at the advancing Reaper forces.

“He’s insane,” Ignat whispered as the Reapers opened fire. “I’m going to die here.”

“I _like_ this guy,” Beck muttered, absently cloaking and scoring a head-shot on a Marauder. “Time to go to work.”

“Cannibals on the left flank,” Tek called, opening up with his Phaeston. “Uh-oh. Lots of Cannibals! Husks, too!”

“Ignat, cover Urdnot,” Beck ordered as another wet crunch sounded, followed by Urdnot’s booming laugh. “Tek, hold fast, I’m moving to overwatch.”

“Copy,” the turian grunted, the lights on his armor flaring as he activated the secondary circuitry. The power of his weapons increased as more energy was fed into them, as well as a set of backup servos in his armor reducing recoil. “Is it just me, or is this too easy?”

Another chortle echoed across the battlefield. “Don’t get jumpy, turian,” Urdnot growled. “The Ravagers and Brutes will show up later.”

“Fantastic,” Ignat mumbled, draining a Marauder’s shields with his omni-tool.

“Beck, look out!” Tek called, dropping a husk with a concussive round. “A couple of them got past me, they’re dropping in from overhead!”

Beck peeled her eye away from her scope just in time to duck a burst of gunfire from a Cannibal. Flinging herself backwards, she rolled to her feet, slinging her Mantis and drawing her Tempest. Firing from the hip, she emptied the entire magazine into the creature, dropping it. Slapping the side of the weapon to eject the overheated thermal clip, she instinctively rolled forward and ducked a husk’s wild swing, before triggering a special program in her omni-tool.

A forked, electrified, flash-fabricated silicon-carbide blade unfolded from her wrist, and a primal shout ripped from her lungs as she slashed horizontally, the blade severing the husk’s arm halfway between the elbow and shoulder and continuing virtually unimpeded through the creature’s body and out the other side, dropping the husk in four pieces. The blade dissipated and Beck holstered her SMG, reaching for her Mantis again as she turned, just in time for another husk to jump on her and begin clawing at her helmet.

One shouted expletive later, Beck got the creature by the throat and choke-slammed it onto the ground, stomping on the creature’s face and crushing its skull. Hearing another husk’s scream as it charged at Ignat, she spun and triggered another program in her omni-tool, launching a mass of super-cooled subatomic particles that splashed across the husk’s back, freezing it solid.

“Thanks for the cover, Lieutenant,” Ignat grunted, emptying his Paladin into the frozen husk’s chest, the explosive rounds detonating a moment later and blasting the creature into pieces.

Beck nodded and drew her Mantis again, dropping a Cannibal that had just dropped down onto the battlefield. “Tek, look out!”

The turian stumbled as a Marauder unleashed a devastating blow with the butt of its rifle, blanking out the soldier’s shields. Another blow to the head knocked Tek on his back, his Phaeston dropping out of his hands.

“Tek’s down!” Beck called, activating her cloak and killing the Marauder with a shot to the shoulder. “Ignat, cover me!”

Urdnot broke in. “I’m on it.”

“Make it fast, Urdnot,” Beck warned, seeing blue blood trickling from Tek’s nose. “One of those freaks comes along, it’ll finish him off.”

“I said I’m on it.” With that, Urdnot holstered his shotgun and barreled forward, cutting through the buildings that separated him from the downed turian. The krogan-shaped freight train of violence and bellowing rage bulldozed through two husks, three Cannibals and a solid prefabricated wall before impacting an opportunistic Marauder that was about to deliver the coup de grace to Tek, slamming the Reaper infantry unit across the alleyway.

“Hang on, Tek,” Beck breathed, covering Ignat with Mantis fire as the salarian’s decoy drew in a pair of Cannibals. A burst of plasma burned through the armored panels they had gained from processing some of the many corpses scattered across the battlefield, and a single shot from each of the operatives finished them off.

Urdnot crouched over the downed turian, administering a packet of medigel and helping him back to his feet. “I owe you one,” Tek mumbled, shaking his head and retrieving his rifle.

“Less thanking, more shooting!” Urdnot charged back into the fray, knocking a Marauder off a balcony with a swing from his hammer and blasting a husk in half with his shotgun.

“ _Gladius Team, this is Control_ ,” their radios chirped. “ _Drone feeds indicate that enemy forces have established indoctrination boosters on-site. We need those taken down before they come on-line. Synching locations now._ ”

“Copy that, Control,” Beck replied. An objective marker popped up on her heads-up display, and she dropped another husk with a cryo blast. The creature froze solid, tipped over, and shattered on impact.

“Cover me,” Tek called, crouching next to one of the Reaper artifacts, his omni-tool blazing to life. His shields blazed as a burst of fire from a Cannibal clipped them. “Anytime today!”

Beck killed the Cannibal as it was readying a grenade. “Sorry, I was reloading.”

“Device is down,” Tek replied in clipped tones, knocking out a Marauder’s shields with a concussive round. Three quick bursts from his Phaeston put the creature down for good.

Ignat set a Marauder on fire, bringing an electronic scream from the creature, and silenced it with a Paladin round to the skull. “Second one is close to me.”

“Covering fire,” Beck called, taking out a husk that had climbed into the building with Ignat. The salarian engineer ducked a burst of fire that shattered a group of computer displays behind him, sending sparks flying across the room, and slapped the next device with his omni-tool. The shattered displays caught fire, and Ignat’s shields flared as the building’s sprinklers went off.

“Could use some help here,” Tek grunted, falling back to reload his assault rifle.

“Beck, hold my spot,” Urdnot called, cutting through the building to flank the Marauders that had Tek pinned down.

“Copy,” Beck answered, drilling a round through a Cannibal’s face. A pair of its cohorts crouched to begin consuming the corpse, and a feral grin stretched across the sniper’s face as she pulled a grenade from her armor, arming it and flinging it across the battlefield.

As the grenade landed on one of the Cannibals and fused to it with a high-powered adhesive, Urdnot flung himself from the balcony, crushing a husk on impact and knocking a Marauder off its feet. He was almost immediately swarmed by Reaper creatures that began clawing at him, his shields collapsing under the assault.

“Urdnot’s in trouble!” Tek called.

“Hardly,” the krogan scoffed. “FEAR THE BATTLEMASTER!” His tech armor flared, before it detonated, staggering the crowd around him. Urdnot chortled, before he grabbed his hammer and brought it down in an overhead smash that pulped a Marauder and sent out a massive biotic shockwave.

There was a moment of quiet as Urdnot slung his hammer and drew his other weapon, a bright red SMG. Firing from the hip, he cut down a Cannibal that had somehow survived the hammer smash, before striding up a set of stairs and back into the building.

“Device is down,” Ignat reported, announcing his return to the fight by draining a Marauder’s shield moments before Beck put it down with a bullet between the eyes.

“I got the third one,” Urdnot announced, crouching next to the device in the middle of the street.

“Urdnot, you gonna take cover, or what?” Beck asked, reloading.

“Cover is for pansies,” the krogan replied, reactivating his tech armor. “Besides, nothing around here is big enough for me to hide behind.”

Beck beaned a husk with another sticky grenade, and the creature shrieked in defiance before it was consumed by the blast. The detonation blanked out a Marauder’s shields and Ignat dropped it with a single well-aimed Paladin shot to the face. More Reaper infantry flooded into the street, firing on the largest available target.

“Barriers are down,” Urdnot grumbled, still not moving. Bullets smacked into his giant frame, and the krogan grunted, finishing up before standing, blood dripping from where the rounds had penetrated his armor.

“Urdnot, you okay?”

“Just fine,” he growled, flattening the nearest offending Cannibal with a single headbutt.

“Where’s the last device?” Ignat called.

“On the other ass-end of this neighborhood, looks like,” Tek answered. “Any volunteers to go get it?”

“Ignat, can you hold here?” Beck asked.

“Be careful, lieutenant,” the salarian answered, reloading his pistol.

Beck nodded, dropping one last Cannibal with a shot to the chest and sidling off to the west, cutting behind Tek, who was busily rearranging a husk’s face with the butt of his rifle.

Beck slid the last five meters and pushed up against the concrete barrier Tek had taken cover behind. “Can you cover me while I go get that damn thing?”

“You got it, boss,” Tek grinned, glancing over the barrier. His mandibles clicked, before he sprang up, yanking a Marauder over the barrier and stabbing it in the neck with one of his omni-blades, punching through its shields and killing it instantly. “Go now, you’re clear.”

Switching to her Tempest, Beck vaulted over the barrier, sprinting along the western edge of the street and up a set of stairs, skidding to a halt next to the device. Crouching, she activated her cloak as she started working on the final device.

“Everything okay over there?” She radioed. A vicious crunch sounded in reply, followed by the sound of Urdnot’s laugh.

“No problems yet,” Ignat replied. “Urdnot’s…still doing his thing.”

Beck’s cloak timed out, and she crouched lower, hoping to remain unnoticed. The scream of a husk told her that wasn’t going to happen.

“Uh…Tek?” She called nervously. “Kinda exposed here?”

“I gotcha, don’t worry,” the turian replied.

“I hope so, because-” Beck spotted a pair of husks sprinting up the stairs behind her and nearly broke off the hack before they exploded, courtesy of a proximity mine from Tek. A Cannibal aiming at her suddenly snapped to one side as a concussive round impacted its skull. The hack finished, and Beck rolled to one side, bringing up her SMG and cutting down another Cannibal. “Control, all devices down, please confirm.”

“ _Confirmed, Gladius team. Sensors indicate all devices are offline. Well done._ ” Beck winged a Marauder with a cryogenic blast, freezing its right side solid moments before Tek shattered it with a well-aimed burst. Beck sprinted past the remains as the turian laid down suppressive fire, her SMG collapsing as she holstered it. Diving over the concrete barrier, she rolled to her feet, her Mantis unfolding.

“Welcome back,” the soldier remarked, dropping a husk with a burst to the chest.

Beck grunted in reply. Cloaking, she put a round through a Marauder’s skull, blanking out its shields and killing it instantly.

“ _Sensors indicate only one left_ ,” Control called. There was one final dull crunch that echoed across the street, followed by the sound of a krogan laugh, and their radios pinged again. “ _All enemies down._ ”

“Everyone okay?” Beck radioed. Tek nodded.

“All good here,” Ignat replied, “and Urdnot is still standing, so I’m going to assume he’s okay.”

“Ready for the next wave,” the krogan growled.

“Dandy,” Beck replied, helping Tek pile the fresh bodies on the other side of their cover. “Everybody reload, patch yourself up if you’re hurt, and hydrate.”  
“Gladly,” Tek muttered, taking a pull from his canteen. “This place reeks.”

“Nobody told you to run around without a helmet,” Beck replied dryly.

“Nobody told me I’d be walking into a damned slaughterhouse,” the turian shot back.

“ _Gladius Team, new wave incoming. Harvester just dropped them off._ ”

“Copy, Control,” Beck replied. “I’d best get back to my overwatch.”

“Go on,” Tek said absently, firing a proximity mine across the length of the battlefield. “I can hold here.”

Jogging back to the building she and Ignat had been sheltering in, Beck checked the readouts on her sniper rifle. She had put a lot of rounds downrange in this mission already and it was unlikely they’d be extracted anytime soon.

“Any contact?” Tek called. “I got nothing over hee _-oh crap it’s a Brute_!”

“Stay put, I’m moving to cover,” Beck’s voice was tight as she jogged through the building, hearing Tek open up on fully automatic.

“Got another Brute here, with Cannibal support,” Ignat radioed, the trill of his omni-tool audible in the background as he sent off another burst of plasma. There was the sound of a biotic detonation, and a krogan bellow. “Oh, dear. Urdnot’s charging the Brute. Deploying decoy.”

Beck sent two clicks in reply and peered down the scope of her rifle, seeing the Brute Tek was blazing away at advancing slowly with its heavily armored claw arm held in front as a shield. Cloaking, she sighted up the massive creature’s head and fired. The round punched into the Brute’s skull, but the massive beast barely slowed even as part of its head was carved away by the bullet. Beck checked her omni-tool’s charge, reloading in the remaining seconds it needed, and fired off another cryo blast at the creature’s legs as Tek hit it with a concussive round.

“Our Brute is down,” Ignat replied as another biotic explosion went off. “Mopping up the Cannibals now.”

“Copy,” Beck replied, firing again from under her cloak and dropping a Cannibal that had a grenade primed. The explosive went off, consuming it and a nearby Marauder. “Ours is still advancing. Tek, aim for the frigging head, not the chest!” The turian was firing wildly, spraying on fully automatic, and Beck ducked as gunfire snapped by her helmet. “Fuck! Guys, I’m pinned down. Need cover!”

“Moving to intervene,” Urdnot replied. Moments later, two Cannibal corpses were flung bodily through the shattered window of a nearby building, and Urdnot opened up with his SMG, hosing down a Marauder that had been firing at Beck. The former turian spun to fire back, giving Beck enough time to drop it with a shot to the back.

“Thanks for the cover, Urdnot,” Beck replied, scanning the battlefield. The sniper blanched as the heavy Reaper unit lowered its claw. “Tek, move, it’s gonna charge!” Tek was reloading as the beast sprinted forward, and deftly side-stepped the Brute’s bulk, ducking under the splayed claw and launching a concussive round into the creature’s unprotected back. Leaping atop it, the soldier opened up at point-blank range, the Phaeston going cyclic and emptying the entire fifty-round magazine into the back of the creature’s head. The first dozen rounds were stopped by the Brute’s thick hide, but the remainder punched into the creature’s innards, and a bellowing gurgle issued from the creature as the thermal clip overheated and the weapon buzzed in response. Tek hopped off the corpse’s back and ejected the clip, his mandibles tight against his face.

“You were right,” he said grimly. “Aiming for the head works better.”

Urdnot chuckled. “Nice work. You might just survive this.” A grenade exploded behind him, knocking out his shields, and the krogan turned. “That was very rude,” he chided, drawing his shotgun and charging. “I WAS SPEAKING TO THE TURIAN!”

Tek and Beck opened up, firing hard as Urdnot charged, ignoring the bullets punching into his armor. A Cannibal met its end at his helmeted forehead, the same charge knocking a Marauder on its ass as its shields blanked out. The Claymore roared, ending the turian husk’s feeble attempts to get back to its feet. Urdnot reached back, recharging the biotic pulse on his hammer as Beck dropped another Marauder with a cloaked shot.

“Ignat, you still okay over there?” Beck radioed.

“Taking heavy fire, could use support,” the salarian replied tightly. “Also running low on thermal clips.” Burst fire could be heard in the background, showing that the salarian had switched to his backup weapon – an M-15 Vindicator.

“Hang on, I’m on my way,” Beck said, ignoring the engineer’s mutterings about human slang. Swinging around the corner of the building and crossing the street, the sniper buttonhooked around another corner, opening up with her Tempest and suppressing the Reaper infantry units long enough to lob another sticky grenade, landing it on a wall next to a pair of Cannibals taking cover. The blast shredded the two batarian husks, shattering a Marauder’s shields moments before Ignat put a burst through its chest.

There was the dull thump of a concussive round going off, and the team’s radios chirped. “ _Gladius team, Control. All clear._ ”

“Copy, Control,” Beck replied, before looking at her salarian teammate. “You alright?”

“The decoy doesn’t shoot back at them, you know,” the engineer said. “It was just me over here. And using my assault rifle ties up both hands.”

“Sorry. Just not enough manpower to cover everyone in a four-man team. You seem to have made it out alright, though.”

“Not incompetent, thank you,” Ignat snapped, refilling his reservoir of thermal clips from one of the stashes around the battlefield. His Paladin made a satisfying click as a fresh heatsink cycled into place.

“We’re almost done here,” Beck muttered, checking the drone feeds on her omni-tool. “

“ _Gladius team, more enemies incoming. Sensors indicate that they are down to thirty percent strength. Hold tight, evac is fifteen minutes away._ ”

“Just hope we’re here when it arrives, Control,” Beck responded.

“ _Agreed, Gladius. HVTs are in the area, stand by for locations._ ”

“Acknowledged, Control.” Beck peered through her rifle’s scope, spotting one of the high-value targets Control had mentioned – a Brute. The creature’s armor gained a fresh scar as Beck’s sniper round punched into its skull, ripping part of it away and partly blinding the creature. It bellowed in response, hammering its claw against its chest.

“Got another Brute here,” Tek called.

“Holler if you need help,” Ignat replied, hitting the highlighted heavy Reaper assault unit with a burst of plasma. The creature roared a challenge, and the salarian sneered, opening up with his Paladin.

Another sniper shot fired from beneath her cloak blinded the creature and it stumbled, crushing a Cannibal that was almost immediately set upon by its compatriots. The batarian husks vomited onto the fallen Cannibal, dissolving the corpse as quickly and nauseatingly as possible before consuming it. Armor panels began to grow across their bodies, and Beck winced behind her helmet.

Beck aimed carefully, muttering to herself. “No matter how many times,” she fired, hitting one of them in the seam between plates and killing it instantly “I see Cannibals do that,” she fired again, killing the other, “it never fails to be disgusting.” Reloading, she hit the Brute again, aiming for the spot where multiple shots of Ignat’s plasma had impacted. The shot broke through, shattering the weakened armor, and a sticky grenade followed, blasting the inside of the creature’s body to ash.

“ _Target down_ ,” Control called, rather unnecessarily, as the Brute landed on an unlucky Cannibal. “ _New high-value target on the field._ ”

“It’s a Marauder,” Tek called. His assault rifle barked, and he continued. “Now it’s a dead Marauder.”

 _“Confirmed, target down,_ ” Control replied. “ _New target highlighted_.”

“You’d figure we could figure that out on our own,” Beck muttered to Ignat. The salarian shrugged, offhandedly draining a Marauder’s shields before double-tapping it.

“It’s another Brute,” Tek reported. “Could use some help, this one seems smarter.”

“Moving to assist,” Beck called.

“Stay put, I got this,” Urdnot growled, pulping a Cannibal’s face with the butt of his gun. Grabbing the dying creature, he threw it clear out of the building through the shattered picture windows, knocking a Marauder off its feet. Beck shrugged, downing another Cannibal that had just readied a grenade.

“Anytime, Urdnot, get a move on.” Tek’s voice was strained, reloading his Phaeston as the Brute slapped a Cannibal aside and crouched to charge, its claw splayed out behind it. Urdnot’s hammer came down, crushing the claw into the ground and flattening the metal. Swinging the hammer back, Urdnot brought his SMG up with his other hand, firing wildly into the Brute’s side. As soon as his hammer was high enough again, Urdnot brought it down onto the flailing creature’s back, slamming the creature flat on its front. He continued firing the SMG into the creature’s back and legs, rounds punching into the creature’s hide. Urdnot ducked as a Cannibal swung its weapon at him and spun, emptying the last of the magazine into the creature’s chest as he re-slung his hammer.

Tek holstered his assault rifle, drawing his other weapon. Centering the Brute’s head in the sights, he activated the backup circuitry in his armor again before rippling off a half-dozen shots, the Viper barking as the sniper rounds put the creature down for good. Ejecting the spent thermal clip, Tek re-sighted, dropping a Marauder that was taking aim at Urdnot with a headshot.

“ _Target down_ ,” Control radioed. “ _Final target marked_.”

On the other side of the neighborhood, Beck was pinned down under heavy fire from said target – a weathered-looking Marauder.

“Little help here, Ignat?” Beck yelled as rounds clipped the edge of her shields.

“Hang on, hang on,” the salarian replied irritably, draining the Marauder’s shields. The creature paused, and Ignat swung out into the open, aiming carefully and squeezing off a single shot from the Paladin. The Marauder’s head burst, the explosive rounds rendering everything above the creature’s sternum a smoking mess. “Control, final target is down, please confirm.”

“ _Confirmed, Gladius team_.”

There was a wet smack as the final Cannibal met its end under the butt of Urdnot’s shotgun.

“Everyone okay?” Beck radioed.

“All good here,” Ignat answered, reloading his Paladin and scooping up a handful of fresh thermal clips from the nearest stash Urdnot had set up.

“No problems,” Tek called, emptying his canteen.

The only answer from Urdnot was a low, rumbling growl.

“…Is he okay?” Beck answered.

“Blood rage,” Ignat answered. “It’s the krogan’s answer to adrenaline.”

“ _Gladius Team, evac is ten minutes out. Just hang in there._ ”

Beck looked over at Ignat. “Is it just me, or does Control sound nervous?”

The salarian nodded. “I got a feeling something big is heading our way.”

Beck leaned her head back against the wall of the prefab building, checking the diagnostic readout from her sniper rifle on her omnitool. The sighting was still perfectly zeroed, but the rifle’s firing mechanism had been acting odd. A few shots had been a fraction of a second later than they should have been. She would have to disassemble the rifle and check out the works later.

“ _Drone feed says more units are inbound, Gladius team_ ,” Control radioed. “ _Good luck_.”

Beck peered down the scope of her rifle, cursing as she spotted the Reaper units. “I got a Brute and two Ravagers over here!” Cloaking, she fired, the shot disabling one of the heavy cannons on one of the Ravagers. A second shot disabled the other cannon, knocking the creature on its side. Priming a sticky grenade, Beck’s arm pumped, flinging the charge as hard as she could. The grenade fused to the wrecked remains of the Ravager’s left cannon, detonating a few seconds later. The impact staggered the Brute next to it, and the other Ravager scuttled forward, trembling for a moment before the trio of sacks ruptured, dropping a horde of smaller insectoid creatures to the ground.

“Swarmers!” Ignat called, launching a ball of plasma. A handful of the creatures ignited, exploding and splattering acid across the ground.

“Crap, crap, crap,” Beck muttered, putting another sniper round downrange and irritating the Brute.  The still-operational Ravager steadied itself and opened fire, Beck’s shields dropping out and sending her staggering back as another shot from the Ravager caught her in the stomach. Scrambling for cover, the sniper coughed, feeling her ribs protesting. Her shields flickered back into place, and she could feel at least two of her ribs were cracked. Her armor tightened around her midsection, stabilizing the cracked bones.

“Beck, if you can still fight, I need help here!” Ignat shouted, sending another burst of plasma at the Brute and emptying his Paladin at the Swarmers.

“I’m here,” Beck groaned, yanking her SMG from its mount on her hip and forcing herself to her feet. “Let’s kick some ass. Slap down a decoy to stall the Swarmers, and let’s get rid of the heavy support.”

“You got it!” Ignat’s omnitool flared, and a holographic salarian appeared several meters in front of him. “Decoy deployed! Open fire!” Leaning out from cover, Beck squeezed the trigger, spraying dozens of rounds into the Brute. The rounds took the creature in the chest, and the armor, already weakened from multiple plasma blasts, finally collapsed. The Brute collapsed, crushing a husk under its bulk.

“ _Beck, Urdnot is in trouble,_ ” Tek called.

“Got problems of my own, Tek, what’s going on?” Beck replied. Finishing off the still-operational Ravager with her last grenade as Ignat killed the last of the Swarmers, she switched back to her Mantis.

“ _Shields down, heavily wounded, having the time of my life,_ ” Urdnot countered. “ _Keep the Swarmers off me. I’ll do the rest_.”

“Don’t get too aggressive, Urdnot,” Beck warned, slapping the expended thermal clip out of her sniper rifle.

“ _No such thing as too aggressive._ ” She could hear the krogan bellow, and the sound of a biotic explosion echoed across the neighborhood.

“Last mag,” Ignat warned, reloading his Paladin. He ducked as a Cannibal’s grenade went off nearby, his shields failing. “Shields down!”

Switching weapons, Beck put a round into the Cannibal’s open mouth, splattering techno-organic blood across the street. As she sprinted from cover, Beck felt rounds hammering against her shields as she skidded to a stop at an alcove on the left side of the street, her ribs aching. She heard a trio of shots from her salarian teammate, and grabbed a bundle of thermal clips, whistling to get his attention. Flinging them overhand across the gap, she swung out, catching a burst of fire in the chest that took out her shields. More rounds punched into her armor, and Beck felt her cracked ribs protest as she staggered back, slamming into the wall.

“Lieutenant, you alright?” Ignat called. Slamming a fresh thermal clip into his Paladin, he swung out, rippling off three perfect shots that reduced a Marauder’s head to pulp.

“I’ll live,” Beck coughed. Sighting carefully, she blew the head off a Marauder, the corpse immediately set upon by a pair of Cannibals.

A pair of Paladin rounds from Ignat staggered one of the creatures, and when it stood up to roar the third round took its head clean off. The other Cannibal stood, freshly fabricated armor panels bristling on its body, and sprinted forward, screaming at the salarian. The engineer screamed back, raising his omni-tool and cutting loose with a blast of plasma that began eating into the armor. Side-stepping the creature’s shots, Ignat slapped the side of his pistol, dropping an expended heatsink to the ground, and triple-tapped the Cannibal between the eyes.

Beck, meanwhile, was pushing her back into the solid wall of the building as dozens of rounds from a pair of Marauders hammered into the corner. Her shield readout flared every other second as a round came close enough to be stopped by her kinetic barriers, and she cloaked, spinning out from cover in a crouch and sending a high-powered round downrange. The Marauder’s head burst like a piece of rotten fruit under a sledgehammer, and the other turian husk burst into flame as Ignat’s plasma connected. Beck reloaded, punching another round through the flaming Marauder’s chest, silencing the creature.

“Tek, we’re all clear here. You two need help?” Beck radioed, checking the readouts on her armor. As she thought, two of her ribs were fractured, and another was cracked.

“ _No, Urdnot’s just explaining the concept of percussive debate to a Brute,_ ” Tek replied.

Beck looked up from the health diagnostic. “He what?”

“ _He’s beating the shit out of something twice his size with a hammer. Better?_ ” The sniper snorted, and there was a final crash audible over the radio. “ _Oop, he’s done. All clear here._ ”

“ _Gladius team, Control. Sensors show one unit remaining._ ” Beck scanned the street through her rifle’s scope, spotting a Cannibal feasting on the fallen bodies. Cloaking, Beck remained stock-still, her heart rate slowing and her crosshairs centered on the creature. The pain from her ribs seemed to fade temporarily, and she slowly squeezed the trigger, the rifle’s crack coming almost as a surprise to her. The creature dropped like a puppet with cut strings, its spine shattered just below the jaw by the round. “ _All units terminated. Good work._ ”

Beck selected a program on her omni-tool, deploying a carefully measured dose of omni-gel from her armor’s reserves. The fire in her ribs washed away as the gel met its target, and the sniper stood up straighter, breathing deeply. “Control, Gladius. Any word on evac?”

“ _Gladius, evac shuttle is seven minutes out, head for the LZ. Acheron Team is en route to relieve you. You’ve got more Reaper units inbound._ ”

“Copy, Control. Boys, start pulling back to the LZ.” She got confirmations from Tek and Ignat, but only a derisive grunt from Urdnot. Moving to the landing zone, Beck fought to stand up straight, her ribs protesting every time she moved. “We’ll take cover here and funnel them into this alleyway.”

“Good choke point,” Tek acknowledged, lobbing another flash-fabricated proximity mine into the street. “Four minutes.” His Phaeston collapsed and locked onto the slot on his armor as he swapped weapons, the Viper unfolding.

“Hold here, I’m going to take a peek,” Beck ordered.

“Be careful, Lieutenant,” Ignat said.

“You know me,” Beck replied, activating her cloak.

“That’s why I said it,” Ignat shot back with a grin.

“Smartass,” Beck mumbled, loping forward with her rifle held low. Her cloak deactivated as she reached cover, and she keyed her radio. “Tek, Ignat, we’ve got problems. Seven Brutes, twelve Marauders, at least thirty Cannibals, more Husks than I can count and a fucking partridge in a pear tree.”

“What’s a partridge?” Tek asked.

“And what’s a pear tree?” Ignat added.

“Something you can eat,” Urdnot rumbled. “And why was I not included in that transmission?”

Beck scoffed. “Because from what I’ve seen around here, that’s a morning workout for you. Now cut the chatter, we got enough to deal with.” _Time for some N-School shit,_ she thought.

“We can take them,” Urdnot declared.

“Yeah, but we might not have to,” Beck muttered, unslinging her belt of sticky grenades and grabbing one of the boxes of grenade templates Urdnot had stashed nearby. Feeding them through the fabricator in her omni-tool, she quickly rendered the entire box of twenty grenades nearly identical to her own belt of four, with a few minor adjustments. “Time to blow some shit up,” she said resolutely, grabbing a grenade in each hand from the pile in front of her. Arming the explosives, she began flinging the grenades as quickly as she could grab and prime them. The Reaper forces began searching for the source of the bombardment, and Beck ducked, continuing to throw the charges as quickly as she could. Several grenades landed ahead of the advancing forces and armed themselves, scanning for enemies in proximity and detonating several seconds later regardless of presence.

“Beck?” Tek radioed. “That’s an awful lot of explosions I’m hearing. You need help?”

“Nope,” Beck answered, grabbing the last two and flinging them into a Brute’s face, the grenades reducing the creature’s head to pulp. “The enemy force is somewhat more manageable now. Heading back to you.” She activated her cloak, hustling back to the rest of the group.

“Have fun?” Tek asked. “Hope you left some for the rest of us.”

“If they get through the mines I saw you lay down, then…well, then Urdnot will turn them into paste. Not really an issue,” Beck replied. “Now get your heads together, we got company.” Cloaking, she reduced a Cannibal’s head to paste with a single shot. Following up with a blast of cryo particles that splattered along the ground, she trapped a group of charging husks. She switched weapons, her Tempest going cyclic and shattering the frozen husks.

Beck heard the odd rattle of Urdnot’s SMG, the crackling interspersed with the odd louder bang as he hosed down a Brute. A pair of Cannibals tripped a proximity mine, their wrecked corpses flying across the street. They were immediately set upon by another Batarian husk, moments before Ignat set it on fire with a burst of plasma. The Brute Urdnot was engaging stepped on a proximity mine, mangling its leg.

“Deploying decoy!” Ignat called, a holographic form of himself blazing to life in the middle of the alley. The Cannibals nearby immediately opened fire on it, and Beck shot one in the head, ducking behind cover to reload as Ignat killed another.

“Concussive round out!” Tek called, knocking a Marauder’s shields out and ending it with a burst to the chest. “Reloading!”

“Keep firing!” Beck ordered, lobbing out another burst of cryo particles. “Control, Gladius One, status on extraction?”

“ _Just another few minutes, Gladius_ ,” Control replied.

“Copy, Control,” Beck replied, watching as Ignat’s decoy lost integrity and dissolved. “Tek, on your left, Marauder sneaking up.” Tek grunted, putting a concussive shot into the Marauder’s nasal cavity. “Nice! Ignat, drain that Marauder’s shields.” The Marauder’s shields snapped and died, and Beck shot it in the neck, reloading as Urdnot’s fire finally brought down the Brute.

“Brute right,” Urdnot growled. “Reloading.” The Krogan-Turian hybrid came around the corner and was immediately barraged with plasma, cryo particles, and concussive rounds in addition to healthy doses of bullets. The Brute quickly collapsed under the concentrated fire, crushing a squealing husk.

“Keep it up, we’re almost out of this shithole,” Beck encouraged, slapping the side of her rifle to eject the expended heatsink. Firing, she finished off a burning Cannibal that Ignat had just ignited, his freshly recharged omni-tool switching programs and draining a Marauder’s shields as Tek activated his armor’s marksman abilities, his Phaeston going cyclic and blasting chunks out of the Marauder’s chest, continuing to fire into the Brute behind it.

“ _Shuttle is two minutes out, Gladius_ _Team_ ,” Control announced.

“Copy, Control!” Beck hollered over the din. “Gladius! Pack your shit! We are leaving!” She and Tek ducked as the Brute he was firing on charged, its claw sweeping over their heads along the top of their cover. Had they been standing up, it would have killed them. A cryo blast splattered across its abdomen, and Tek shattered the weakened armor with a burst, the creature’s flesh splitting open. The creature clutched one arm to its belly, its organs visible and bulging around the open wound. Ignat seized the opportunity, firing a burst of plasma into the gash. The creature’s intestines ignited, the creature bellowing in pain as its insides burned. Beck felt a wave of nausea at the sight and was again grateful for her sealed helmet to keep out the stench.

“Well, that’s the last of my proximity mines,” Tek said as the last Marauder on the field evaporated in a burst of corrupted meat and metal. “Husks tripped most of them.”

“ _Ninety seconds, Gladius. Shuttle reports LZ is in sight!_ ”

“Could they pick it up a bit?” Tek asked, watching as Ignat ignited a Cannibal’s armor plates before ripping off several careful bursts, killing it. “We aren’t exactly having a picnic down here!”

“If you can’t handle it, turian, then back off,” Urdnot said, reloading his empty SMG from the looted webbing on his chest.

“Not a chance, krogan,” Tek shot back, knocking a Cannibal over a railing with a concussive round to the forehead.

Beck rolled her eyes. “Both of you shut up and keep firing! Save the dick-measuring for later!” Attracting a Brute’s attention with a shot to the head, she scowled as the round failed to penetrate the creature’s armor. Reloading and activating her cloak, she fired again, a crack developing in the armor plating. She highlighted it on her HUD, and Ignat hit the crack with a ball of plasma as Urdnot switched to his Claymore. He took a moment to aim, reducing a nearby Cannibal to ragged meat and wrecking the arm of its partner with a single booming shot.

“ _Sixty seconds to extraction, Gladius,_ ” Control radioed.

Tek finished the wounded Cannibal off with a concussive round as Beck hit the weakened armor section with another shot, the round finally punching through. “Last Cannibal is down,” Urdnot rumbled as his Claymore discharged again. “Engaging the other Brute.” Drawing his hammer, he charged it up with a biotic pulse as the other three opened fire on the weakened Brute.

“Laying down a decoy,” Ignat said, the hologram spawning in front of the wounded beast. It was almost immediately destroyed as the Brute slammed its claw down. There was a moment’s pause. “Oh.” He shot the Brute in the face with his Paladin, drawing the creature’s attention, and followed the rounds up with a burst of plasma, igniting the creature’s skull. The beast finally fell, and Ignat poured on more plasma, ensuring the Brute stayed down.

Meanwhile, Urdnot bellowed a challenge to the Brute he was engaging, blocking its attack with a strike from his hammer, the biotic discharge warping the metal of the beast’s claw. Charging in close, Urdnot fired his shotgun into the creature’s belly, before holstering the empty weapon and hefting his hammer in both hands. His overhand downwards strike ended relatively early in an impact on the forehead of the Brute’s turian skull, the biotic warp energy exploding on impact.

“Brute is down,” Urdnot growled, stepping back as the corpse fell forward.

“ _Shuttle is thirty seconds out, on final approach,_ ” Control said.

“We’re ready for them, Control,” Beck reported. “Site is clear.”

“ _Copy, Gladius._ ”

“Stay alert,” Beck ordered. “No last-minute fuckups.” Grabbing a Cerberus Harrier from a stash nearby, she checked it over and hooked it onto her armor. “No harm in bringing some extra weapons back,” she muttered. She picked up another weapon, clearly Geth-made, and collapsed it, hooking it onto the shotgun mount on her armor. Working her shoulders, she groaned. “How we used to run around carrying all this gear, I’ll never know.”

“Agreed,” Tek replied, filling up his own weapon mounts with looted weapons. The shuttle swooped down, coming to a hovering stop a foot off the pad. The door opened, and a pair of Alliance marines stepped out, carrying heavy weapons. “Time to go.”

“Looks like you’re next to me on the ride out, froggy,” Urdnot rumbled to Ignat.

The salarian engineer glanced sidelong at him. “I hope you don’t get airsick.”

Urdnot chuckled. “No promises.” The salarian winced as the group boarded the shuttle.

“You feeling alright, Urdnot?” Tek asked as the shuttle left Benning’s surface.

“Little hungry, but otherwise fine,” the massive krogan replied.

“Really? Because you kinda got shot. A lot.”

Urdnot scoffed. “Most krogan can laugh off fire from a Cannibal. The older krogan, like myself, can take bullets from two or three sources and regenerate fast enough to stay on our feet. It’s not fun, but it takes a lot to put us down. When the Reapers land on Tuchanka, I pity the bastards. They’ll have two billion soldiers just like me to fight.”

“We're closing on the _Berlin_ ,” the pilot called. “Two minutes to docking.”

“Copy,” Beck replied. “Urdnot. What ship were you attached to before this?”

The krogan looked over at her. “Asari frigate, actually. Some weapons testbed platform that they pressed into service when the Reapers hit. Asari crew, handful of salarian engineers that had been with it and were keeping it running. Three Asari commandos and I as the strike team, callsign Cobalt.” He shook his head. “Good fighters. Not good enough to hold out against a sustained joint Reaper-Collector assault for thirty straight hours, but few are.”

“Well, the SSV Berlin is a Systems Alliance cruiser, Geneva-class,” Beck said. “Part of the 2nd Fleet. Most of that fleet was destroyed already when the Reapers hit Earth, but the few ships that made it out wound up picking up a lot of refugees of all races.”

“Sounds cramped,” Urdnot said. “That could be a problem.”

“A lot of those refugees wound up proving capable of holding a gun without hurting themselves. The rest got dropped off at the Citadel,” Beck said. “Don't worry about space. We've had a krogan onboard before, we know their requirements. The 2nd Fleet's remnants formed the transport and orbital defense section of the N7 Operations Corps. Now, those ships are working on this weird-ass flexible defense program that Admiral Hackett came up with to hold the line against the Reapers, the Collectors, and anyone else who wants to have a go.”

The shuttle shook, and the pilot killed the engines. “Honey, I'm home!”

Popping the hatch, Beck stepped out and stretched, nodding to a crew chief that immediately set upon the shuttle, checking it and preparing it for the next run. Pulling her helmet off, she cracked her neck before running a gauntleted hand through a shock of thick brown hair that had been stuck to her chestnut-brown skin, slicked down by sweat. “Good to be back,” she said, taking her first breath of air that hadn’t been run through helmet filters in over three hours.

Tek stepped off the shuttle behind her, shaking out a cramped leg. “I’m gonna head to the medic, get these wounds checked out. Meet you at the workshop.” He turned to leave, only to stumble back as a medical team sprinted by, heading for another shuttle that was landing.

“Okay, we got multiple gunshot and stab wounds!” the medical team’s leader said as the shuttle’s door hissed open, a bloodstained asari stumbling out with a turian leaning against her. The turian’s left arm was missing just above the elbow, a charred stump dangling feebly as the turian weaved, shock clearly setting in. “Sit down,” the medic ordered, and the turian sagged, slumping against the side of the shuttle as the asari collapsed into another medic’s arms. “Crap, he’s going into shock,” the medic said. “We need to string an IV, _now_!”

“Dextro-blood IV, here,” another medic said, his omni-tool glowing. “Administering vasopressor. His BP is low, we have to get it back up.”

“The other two’ve had it,” another medic called from inside the shuttle, stepping out and wiping blue blood off her hands, before looking at the asari. “Where were you hit?”

“In the gut,” the commando replied. The medic pried her hands away from the wound, looked at the wound and shook her head. “Level with me, doc. How bad is it?”

“You’re not gonna want to eat anything heavy for a while,” the medic said. “You’ll live, but we have to get your friend into surgery, and soon.”

“Maybe I’ll wait on visiting Medical,” Tek muttered. “Workshop, then?”

“Workshop,” Beck said. “Come on, Urdnot, we’ll get you squared away onboard.”

“That sort of mess common around here?” Urdnot asked, jerking his head at the medics who had now unfolded a stretcher and were helping the critically wounded turian lay down onto it.

“All too common,” Beck said. “Lots of fighters who head out standing come back lying down, in pieces, or not at all. I’m just glad the civvies can’t see this part of the fight. It’d kill morale.”

“I’m not sure how my people are going to handle this war,” Ignat admitted as they entered a workshop, several weapons maintenance benches set up next to a soldering station and a fabricator. “Salarians don't get into a war unless they've already won it.”

“We weren't ready for the Reapers either,” Beck replied, breaking down her sniper rifle with practiced ease and sliding the parts into the workbench, the technology cleaning and checking the weapon for issues automatically. “And we knew they were coming. Shepard warned us. We didn't listen, not soon enough.”

“Don't feel too bad,” Tek said, setting his Phaeston down on a workbench. “The Council didn't listen either. Hell, the Hierarchy had an entire Reaper Task Force waiting and it still didn't do a damn bit of good.”

Beck looked at Urdnot. “How do you think the krogan will handle this war?”

“Business as usual,” Urdnot replied, methodically breaking down his SMG. “You all talk like this is something new for you. But the krogan have never _not_ been at war. If it wasn't against the turians or the rachni, it was against the genophage, or more likely ourselves. Only thing different here is the scale.”

“So what, it's the same bar-fight, just bigger?” Beck asked sarcastically.

Urdnot looked up at her, his mouth splitting into a toothy smile. “Exactly. The galaxy's biggest bar-fight, and I get to be in the middle of it. It's every krogan's dream. We hunger for a good fight constantly. The Reapers will give us the best fight in our entire history.”

“Better than the Krogan Rebellion?” Tek asked.

Urdnot growled. “You people all talk about that like you have any idea of what it was.” He snorted. “The Krogan Rebellion. Like we were subservient to you in the first place, and rose up, only to get smacked down like a misbehaving varren.” He shook his head. “No. Call it what it was. The Krogan War. The Council let a half-trained attack dog off the leash and then got upset when it turned on them.”

“So, what's next for you?” Beck asked after an uncomfortable pause.

“Assigned to a new team, probably. Get back into the fight,” Urdnot replied. “Krogan don't do well in large groups, especially with other krogan. It's probably best I try to avoid a team that has one on it.

Beck activated her omni-tool, switching channels to the ship's onboard VI. “Alecto, Lieutenant Cassandra Beck.”

“Greetings, Lieutenant,” Beck heard a pleasant if toneless female voice say in her earpiece.

“Alecto, is N7 Operations member Urdnot, formerly attached to Cobalt Team, already tasked for a new squad?”

“Negative, Lieutenant. After the destruction of Cobalt Team, Operative Urdnot is to be reassigned pending a psychological evaluation and recovery from any wounds sustained. He has not yet been assigned to any new squad.”

“Alecto, request he be assigned to Gladius Team.”

“Request made,” Alecto acknowledged. “Your request should be addressed by Control within three standard hours.”

“Copy, Alecto,” Beck said, signing off. “Well, unless Control denies my request, looks like you've got a new team, Urdnot.”

The krogan snorted. “Straight to the point. I like it.”

Beck nodded. “I'm gonna stow my gear and file my after-action report, then get my ribs checked and hit the mess. You hungry?”

Urdnot shook his head. “Gotta get some sleep first.”

“Should get yourself checked out by the medics, too,” Beck suggested.

“No.”

Beck waited a moment, hoping Urdnot would elaborate. “No?”

“No.”

“You going to explain why?”

“No.”

“Now you're just being difficult.”

“Krogan don't do doctors,” Ignat said from across the workshop.

“For good reason, froggy,” Urdnot growled. “Or have you forgotten that?”

“Salarians don't forget,” Ignat replied coolly. “And not all of us think the genophage was a good idea.”

“Urdnot,” Beck said firmly, cutting off further conversation between him and Ignat. “Go to the medic. Get checked out. You took a lot of fire and you've been on the go for days.” The krogan stepped into her personal space and stared her down, and Beck remained stonefaced. “That's an order, soldier.” Urdnot's lip curled for a moment, before he turned back to the workbench, grabbing his shotgun and locking it into position on his armor before storming out.

“Pardon my saying so, but crap, Lieutenant,” Tek breathed. “That took courage.”

“Can't be afraid of someone just because they have two or three times your body mass and several redundant organs,” Beck replied. “And you should get yourself checked over too. You took a few good hits back there.”

Several hours later, Beck was curled up in the compartment set aside for Gladius Team onboard the _Berlin_. The medics had fused her ribs, and she scratched at the healing incision, feeling the applied medigel holding the skin together. Tek was tossing and turning on his bunk, and Ignat was out and about the ship, helping out with maintenance tasks and turning in their salvaged weaponry to the armory.

“Can’t sleep, huh,” she heard from the next bunk. Rolling over, she saw Urdnot sitting up on his bunk, his armor stacked neatly nearby. He was tinkering with his omni-tool, his hammer sitting next to him.

“Never comes easy,” she admitted, sitting up. “Not any easier in these times.”

“What’s your valve?” He asked.

“My valve?”

Urdnot shut down his omni-tool, looking up at her. “I’ve fought alongside humans, asari, turians, salarians, drell, krogan, vorcha, and even some quarians. I even teamed up with an elcor once. They all have two things in common. Blood you can spill, and the need to stop fighting every so often. You can’t stay at war. Not forever. Get a way to relax. I’ve fought a lot of battles in my life, and I know that this mess could last a long time. You get burned out, and you’re a liability to me, and to the team.”

Beck jerked her head at him. “What’s your valve, then?”

Urdnot shrugged. “I enjoy good food.”

Beck snorted, a grin spreading across her face. “That’s what you do to relax? You eat?”

“Hey, there’s some great food out there.” He tapped a finger on his chin. “The dextro stuff is typically good, but damned if it doesn’t give you cramps. Salarian food is typically bland, but it’ll keep you going in a fight when you need the energy. The asari know how to cook, though. And humans…you’ve come up with some odd foods that really shouldn’t work, but do.”

Beck chuckled. “Like what?”

“You have these nuts on your planet, about the size of your head. They grow on these tall trees on islands, and they have this fluid inside them…”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Beck said, holding up a hand. “You’re talking about coconuts?”

“Yes! Coconuts!”

“Those aren’t nuts, Urdnot,” Beck said, fighting the urge to laugh. “They’re technically fruit.”

Urdnot paused for a moment. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Beck said, biting her lip to keep from laughing. “I used to have them all the time.”

“Well, whatever they are, they taste great.” Urdnot shrugged. “And they can make them into these sweets. Macaroons or something.”

“Yeah, coconut macaroons,” Beck said, grinning widely. “My grandmother used to make them all the time.”

“Could you get her to send you some?” Urdnot asked hopefully.

Beck’s face fell. “She, uh…she was on Earth when the Reapers hit. My whole family was.”

Urdnot was silent for a few moments. “We’re going to take it back from them, Beck. I promise you that.”

“Thanks, big guy,” Beck said. “I appreciate that.” They sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to Tek snuffle in his sleep at the other end of the room.

“Tell me about your clan,” Urdnot said suddenly.

Beck looked over. “Hm?”

“Your clan. Tell me about them. If I’m going to fight alongside you, I need to know where you’re coming from.”

Beck nodded. “Okay then. Well, my father is English, my mother is Indian and Japanese. They met at university. He’s a merchant, business trader. She’s in the military, a Major in the 103rd.” Beck paused a moment. “She was in London. I’ve got no idea if she’s alive.”

“Keep going,” Urdnot pressed. “Your mother the only military in the family?”

Beck snorted. “Hardly. Most of the women in my family are military. I’ve got a cousin on the _Everest_ , one of their gunnery operators. She’s always joking about how she’s packing one of the biggest guns in the galaxy. My aunt is CO of the _Kilimanjaro_ , made Captain alongside her sister. My grandmother on that side? She was an Admiral, worked under Jon Grissom himself.”

“Impressive,” Urdnot said. “A family of warriors. I look forward to seeing what they can do.”

“Yeah. What about you?”

“Clan Urdnot is a reformist group amongst the krogan, and the closest thing we have to a representative body to the rest of the galaxy,” he said. “Nobody chose them, but then that’s the krogan way – if nobody’s trying to fight you for your position, you’re either in charge or in a position nobody else wants. Sometimes both at the same time. There’s only so much that we can do considering the circumstances the krogan are in.”

“Too divided?”

“We can’t do much of anything without at least one death,” Urdnot said. “The krogan don’t care because we don’t see a future for our race. That’s what makes this war interesting. It puts all of you in the same mindset as us. Finally, we’re on equal ground.”

“Can the genophage be cured?” Beck asked quietly.

“You would want to ask the salarian about that. Not me. I’m no scientist. I’m a warlord.”

“Well, warlord, it’s time we got some sleep,” Beck said.

“Agreed, lieutenant.”


	2. Sanctum - Rhino

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to update this story at least once a month. I'm also going to scale back the combat a bit. It's intense and it can be fun to write, yeah, but after a few waves it all starts to blur together and it doesn't particularly add to the story.

_Codex – Systems Alliance – N7 Operations Forces_

_N7 is a vocational code in the Systems Alliance military. The "N" designates special forces and the "7" refers to the highest level of proficiency. It applies to Alliance personnel who have graduated from the Interplanetary Combatives Training (ICT) program._

_Interplanetary Combatives Training (ICT) is the Systems Alliance's premier school for leadership and combat expertise. The Interplanetary Combatives Academy, sometimes called "N-School" or "the villa," recruits officers from every branch of Earth's militaries to partake in grueling courses at Vila Militar in Rio de Janeiro._

_Initially, candidates train for more than 20 hours per day, leading small combat teams through hostile terrain with little sleep or food. Trainees who do well are awarded an internal designation of N1 and are invited to return. Subsequent courses - N2 through N6 - are often held off-planet and include instruction in zero-G combat, military free-fall (parachuting), jetpack flight, combat diving, combat instruction, linguistics, and frontline trauma care for human and alien biology._

_The highest grade of training, N6, provides actual combat experience in combat zones throughout the galaxy. If the trainee survives these scenarios in "admirable and effective fashion," he or she finally receives the coveted N7 designation. N7 is the only ICT designation that may be worn on field or dress uniforms._

_There is little shame in failing an N course - the training is so extreme that even qualifying for N1 elevates an officer to a position of respect. The universal prestige of merely attending the academy helps to restrain trainees from taking excessive risks in pursuit of higher honors._

_Although ICT qualification by itself does not guarantee higher rank, those officers who are able to complete the program are typically well suited to senior leadership positions._

**Firebase Glacier, Sanctum, Decoris System, Sigurd’s Cradle**

 

“ _Rhino Team, this is Control_ ,” a male voice called. “ _You are being deployed to hold a tech lab. This facility was constructed and staffed by Cerberus. One of our strike teams already secured the facility, but we cannot afford to allow Cerberus to retake those labs_.” A map popped up in the team’s heads-up displays, showing the layout of the labs. “ _There is confirmed Reaper tech on-site, along with other items of interest. Be careful, people._ ”

“In other words, don’t touch anything if it looks Reaper-y,” the engineer quipped.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” another team member replied. “Believe me, I’m glad to have avoided that. I got out of Cerberus when the Illusive Man started jacking up his troops on Reaper tech. I fought husks on Eden Prime. I saw how they got made. Not looking for that.”

“Would have been smarter to not join Cerberus in the first place,” the team leader said.

“Hey, someone’s gotta stick up for humanity, make sure that the Council doesn’t run all over us,” the ex-Cerberus trooper said.

“Yeeeah, that’s what our _ambassador on the Council_ is for,” the team leader shot back.

“Enough,” the final team member rumbled. “Save it for the enemy.”

“Alright, alright,” the team leader said. “Control, this is Rhino Team, Lieutenant Michael Jenkins commanding, we are ready to deploy.”

“ _Thirty seconds to landing_ ,” the pilot reported.

“Lock and load,” Jenkins ordered, drawing a shotgun.

“Wait, isn’t that an M-11 Wraith?” The engineer said. “Not that I care, but aren’t those illegal like…everywhere in Citadel space?”

“Nobody’s really giving a shit about weapon regulations these days, Kennedy,” Jenkins said. “And if they would prefer I _not_ use it to be a badass and defend their lives, that’s an option too.”

“Call me Ollie,” the engineer replied tersely.

“ _Landing now. Go!_ ” The door hissed open, and the team entered the labs from the landing pad.

“Control, Rhino One, we are on-site,” Jenkins reported. “Kennedy, Knight, take the high ground.” He looked at the fourth team member, a krogan in dark red armor. “Tag, you’re with me.”

“Whatever,” the krogan replied, an extra biotic barrier layering over his armor. “Just try not to die, Jenkins.”

“Tag, watch your-” Jenkins’s head exploded with a wet _splock_ as a Nemesis fired.

“Well, he’s dead,” Tag said dispassionately, ignoring bullets pinging off his barriers. “Control, we just lost our team leader. Headshot. Idiot didn’t even activate his tech armor.”

“ _Lock it down, Rhino Four,_ ” Control ordered. “ _Continue with the mission. We’ll scramble a replacement._ ”

“Don’t go out of your way,” Tag scoffed, grabbing Jenkins’s Wraith and hooking it onto his armor. Holstering his Executioner’s pistol, he grabbed Jenkins’s M-6 Carnifex, before waving at the trio of Cerberus troopers spraying fire at him. The world blurred, and he exploded into existence in their midst, clotheslining one and offhandedly shooting another in the face. Headbutting the third, he sent the man flying, his neck clearly broken by the impact. Spotting a Nemesis taking aim at the engineer, Tag charged again, knocking the sniper flat on her back and stomping hard, grinning at the electronic squeal coming from her helmet.

Another trooper came around the corner and took aim at Tag, only for a cluster of arrows to sprout from the center of his helmet. Ollie tossed Tag a mock salute as the trooper hit the floor, before he dropped a Centurion with several bursts from an M-15 Vindicator. Ollie ducked as a long stream of fire came from a deployed turret, the engineer crouching next to it and opening fire with an M-5 Phalanx. “Crap,” the Talon mercenary said, reloading his weapon. “Louis, you mind?”

“Yeah, I got this one,” Knight said, reloading his Harrier assault rifle and swapping it for his shotgun. “Sit tight, Ollie, this won’t take a second.” Standing, he lunged forward, blurring and blasting across the intervening space in a fraction of a second. He hit the turret, the deployed gun’s shields blanking out in the impact. His shotgun roared, the N7 Piranha’s shells blasting the turret to pieces. Turning and reloading, he charged again at point-blank range, sending the horrified Cerberus engineer flying into a console. The man’s spine broke on impact, and Knight fired twice into the critically injured man, finishing him off. A Centurion closed on him, Knight’s barriers faltering under the fire of his assault rifle, and deployed a shock baton, staggering the vanguard.

“Nice hit,” Knight said appreciatively. “My turn.” Snapping his arm out, a flash-forged electrified lash wrapped around the Centurion’s neck, and Knight whipped his arm back the other way, yanking the man off his feet and slamming him into the wall. The lash disintegrated, its job done, and Knight aimed carefully, sending two Piranha shells into the man’s undefended back.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that!” Knight hollered, charging a hapless assault trooper. Impacting as Tag biotically body-checked the trooper’s partner, he fired the last two shells from his Piranha’s magazine into the trooper he’d knocked flat, before bumping fists with Tag. “Having fun?” The krogan chuckled in reply, his looted shotgun blasting a fist-sized chunk out of a Nemesis’s chest.

As suddenly as the incoming fire had started, it stopped as the last Cerberus infantryman dropped dead, an arrow sticking out of his neck.

“ _Enemy is regrouping, take the opportunity to restock,_ ” Control radioed.

Knight sidled up next to Ollie, reloading his shotgun. “What’s the deal with that omni-bow?”

“Could ask you the same question about those whips,” Ollie replied, feeding fresh thermal clips into his Vindicator.

“Lashes,” Knight replied coolly. “Don’t ask me, the Illusive Man watches too many movies.”

Ollie shrugged. “Well, it’s sort of an all-purpose weapon. We’ve got concussive arrows, AP arrows, and regular kick-your-ass arrows, in packs. My omni-tool can generate more over time.” Pulling a disc from his belt, he tapped the convex side before flinging it overhand, the mine sticking to a low wall and deploying, a tripwire laser visible on infrared. “And we have those. Cain Mines. Talon Company digs in, makes the enemy bleed. I fear only running out of arrows.” Ollie tossed Tag a handful of thermal clips as the krogan passed by. The krogan vanguard nodded in thanks, feeding fresh heatsinks into his weapons.

“Well, time to get back to work,” Knight said, switching back to his assault rifle.

“ _Rhino Team, you’ve got another wave incoming,_ ” Control radioed. “ _Ready up._ ”

“Rhino Team, copy that,” Ollie replied. Pressing his back against the wall, he lobbed another Cain Mine down the hallway, sticking it to the wall at chest height.

“Guardian!” Tag hollered, opening fire on the shield-bearing Cerberus trooper, rounds pinging off the shield. “Someone flank him!”

“Yeah, not a problem,” Knight said, a biotic corona growing around him. Snapping his arm out and to the side, a biotic tether flew across the space between Knight and the Guardian and latched onto the shield, ripping it out of his hand. Knight turned to Tag. “After you.”

Tag grinned, charging the Guardian and sending him flying into a pair of Assault Troopers. Drawing his own SMG, Tag hosed the trio down with Tempest fire, walking up and finishing one with a stomp to the helmet.

Thirty meters to Tag’s left, Ollie was firing down a hallway, knocking out a Centurion’s shields before pinning an arrow through his helmet. Another Centurion fired several smoke grenades down the hall, and Ollie cursed, pulling back to the next available cover and leaving a Cain Mine behind. Gunfire pinged off his shields, and Ollie dove over the console, thanking Cerberus contractors for making the console bulletproof. He heard a satisfying detonation as the Cain Mine went off, followed by the sound of blood and body parts splattering across the hall. Generating a set of concussion arrows, Ollie spun out from cover, aiming carefully and firing the clutch into a cluster of assault troopers. Spotting a laser sight through the smoke, Ollie rolled to one side, a sniper’s bullet whizzing through the space he’d been moments before. He fired at the source of the shot, hearing an electronic squeal in response.

Knight slammed into the wounded Nemesis from the side, a long trail of dead bodies behind him serving as a testament to why fucking with an angry vanguard was a poor life choice. Drawing his Cerberus-issued stun baton, he smashed it into the Nemesis’s face, shattering her eyepiece, before jamming the electrified end into her eye. Her implants sparked and shorted out, and Knight kicked her in the chest, the implants automatically self-destructing as her life signs faded. “Down, girl,” he snarled, ducking as fire from a Centurion battered his barriers. “Oh, you did _not_.” Charging, Knight landed a strike to the Centurion’s jaw with the butt of the weapon, following it up by slammed the barrel of his shotgun into the man’s chest before unloading several shots into the Centurion.

A Guardian barreled into Knight’s back, knocking him off his feet. Moments later, the Guardian was flattened by two hundred kilos of angry krogan. Tag fired his Wraith into the fallen man’s back until he stopped twitching. Knight bumped fists with Tag, before both vanguards charged off at separate targets.

Ollie glared at the two. “Frickin’ showoffs.” He spotted a Cerberus squad coming up on his right, trying to flank him, and lobbed a Cain mine, the explosive securing itself to the ceiling just past a doorway. The Talon Engineer scooted along the console, readying a fresh set of arrows and watching as the squad entered the room, weapons up. The mine chirped happily, before detonating downwards – directly into their heads. Ollie stood, stepping over the bodies and peering out from the doorway. Spotting a Guardian screening for a Nemesis, Ollie drew his Shuriken, standing and sprinting forward. Launching a clutch of arrows into the Guardian’s back, Ollie put several bursts from his machine pistol into the sniper, watching as the Nemesis’s implants fizzled and self-destructed.

“Control, Rhino Three, we’re seeing no remaining contacts here, please confirm,” Knight radioed.

“Rhino Team, we’re only seeing one remaining contact.”

“Nemesis,” Tag reported. There was a loud crack, and Tag radioed again. “And she shot me.”

“You okay?” Knight asked.

“Takes more than that to put a krogan down,” Tag growled. “Come here, you little bitch.” The others could hear the loud bang of his Executioner’s pistol, and the vanguard reported all clear.

“ _Stay alert, enemy forces are still in play,_ ” Control responded.

“So, Tag, who are you?” Ollie asked, tossing a mine into place. “I’d worked with Knight and…what was his name? Jinks? Jinkies? Jackass?”

“Jenkins,” Knight supplied.

“Jenkins, before. But you’re new.”

“My line goes back to the founder of the Blood Pack,” Tag rumbled. “Ganar Wrang founded the Pack.”

“You affiliated with them?” Ollie asked carefully. “Because Talon Company doesn’t exactly get along with them.”

“I used to be,” Tag went on. “But we…went separate ways, a while back.”

“Ten credits says he killed his commanding officer,” Ollie said immediately, lobbing another Cain mine. The explosive deployed, its tripwire laser cutting across a doorway.

“Ten says his entire unit died,” Knight replied.

“You’re both right!” Tag said cheerfully, reloading the shotgun’s deposit of thermal clips. “We were sent on a raid against some Eclipse fighters. I was the only one who made it out of there, and when I tracked down my battlemaster I found out he was worried about us. Our reputation was getting too good, he was afraid of being replaced.” Tag shrugged. “I shot him in the face and left the Pack.” Knight and Ollie exchanged credit chits. “Went solo for a while, taking jobs across the Terminus and the Skyllian Verge. Then the Reapers showed up.” He hooked the shotgun back onto his armor, reloading his looted Carnifex. “I’m keeping track of things. I’ll bill the Alliance if we win.”

“You really think they’ll pay out?” Knight asked.

Tag shrugged. “If they don’t, I can always just steal another fighter and sell it to make up the money.”

“ _Rhino Team, drone feeds indicate you have fresh enemy troops incoming_. _Get ready._ ”

“Copy, Control,” Ollie radioed. “Back to work, boys.”

“ _Rhino Team, we have confirmed Reaper tech on-site. We need it retrieved for analysis. Priority one, Rhino Team._ ”

Ollie shook his head. “First they tell us to stay away from it. Now they want us to go and poke the stuff?”

“Price of fame, Ollie,” Knight said. “Can you grab it? You’re closest.”

“Moving,” the engineer replied, making for the marker on his heads-up display. Sliding over the top of a console, Ollie pressed himself into cover, reaching up and slapping the console with his omni-tool, deactivating the containment field and grabbing the Reaper artifact off the console. Hooking it to his belt, Ollie reloaded his Vindicator, blind-firing over the console. A pained scream rewarded his efforts, and Ollie prepped a set of concussive arrows, firing them in a spread to keep the enemy’s head down as he hustled around a set of displays towards the shuttle pad. “Control, objective is in hand, heading for the dropoff now.”

“ _Copy that_.”

Ollie ducked as he walked right into the line of fire of a turret. “Shit. Tag, Knight, I’m pinned down. Can anyone move to assist?”

“Hold position, I’m flanking,” Knight replied immediately. A Centurion readying a grenade died first as Knight body-checked him into the wall with a biotic charge, before he opened up with his Piranha, downing the Engineer who had deployed the turret with a pair of shots to the back of the skull. The vanguard deployed his lashes, slamming them down on the turret and knocking out its shields with a single blow, before putting several rounds into the turret. The gun emplacement exploded, and Knight offhandedly shot a passing assault trooper as he radioed Ollie. “Move up, you’re all clear.”

“Cheers,” Ollie called, moving quickly towards the shuttle pad. “Control, package is ready for pickup.”

“ _Shuttle is ten seconds out, Rhino,_ ” Control replied. Ollie set the artifact down on the pad, turning and turning an assault trooper’s skull into abstract art with a well-aimed burst as the shuttle came into a hover, a pair of marines hopping out, grabbing the artifact, and pulling it back into the craft, before the shuttle buzzed off. “ _Package is in hand, well done._ ”

“Kick-ass,” Ollie said. “What else you got for us, Control?”

“ _Sensors indicate a canister of experimental explosives in this section of the labs, Rhino,_ ” came the reply. “ _Securing that is now your objective._ ”

“I’m closest,” Tag called. “Securing the canister now.” There was a brief pause, before Tag came back on the radio, the pained screams of a Centurion dying under Tag’s guns audible in the background. “Control, is this stuff stable?”

“ _No indicated danger of sympathetic detonation, Rhino,_ ” Control replied.

Tag shot an Assault Trooper in the neck with the shotgun at close range, most of the man’s head and upper chest dissolving from the shot. Hooking the canister onto his armor, he growled as he felt the weight slow him down. “Package in hand, Control. Moving to the DZ now.”

“Moving to cover,” Knight said, punching an Engineer in the face as he ran by, his Harrier up. “Ollie, hold the DZ.”

“On it,” Ollie replied, lobbing a Cain mine into a doorway. A rain of body parts and blood flew through the doorway as the mine went off. Ollie shrugged, lobbing another mine and prepping a set of armor-piercing arrows.

“Taking fire,” Tag grunted, firing blind through the smoke from a Centurion’s grenade. “You wanna earn your pay already, Knight?”

“Coming, try not to die,” Knight called. “Keep your panties on.” Tag headbutted the Centurion, shattering the man’s helmet and shooting him in the face with his shotgun. Knight charged the Centurion’s squad, the biotic blast knocking out one man’s shields as Harrier fire downed two others. Knight deployed his lashes, slamming the remaining two men into the ground, limbs shattered under the impact. Knight looked over at Tag, offhandedly firing a finishing burst into the man he had hit with a biotic charge. “Happy?”

“You have no idea,” Tag said, exiting the lab. “Control, status on the shuttle?”

“ _ETA thirty seconds, Rhino,_ ” Control replied.

“Copy that,” Tag grunted, his barriers shrugging off fire from a pair of assault troopers. Drawing his Executioner’s pistol, he took careful aim, firing once and creating a fine spray of blood, brains, and armor fragments from an assault trooper’s skull. Slapping the expended heatsink from the weapon, he fired again, his barriers collapsing moments before he blew the other trooper’s head off. Tag eyed a bullet wound in his arm, shrugging as his barriers reconstituted.

“Everyone okay?” Ollie asked, firing down a hallway at a Guardian who was screening for a pair of assault troopers.

“Waiting on the pickup,” Tag reported. “Got winged. I’m fine.”

“No problems, just mopping up the remainder of a squad over here,” Knight radioed.

Ollie managed a burst through the Guardian’s viewing slot, and the blood splatter blinded the troopers behind him, the two falling to a spread of armor-piercing arrows.

“Shuttle’s coming in,” Tag said over the radio, watching the craft come in. He passed the canister off to the marines onboard the shuttle, before turning back to the fight, spotting a fresh Cerberus squad coming in. “Control, package is delivered. Enjoy.”

“ _Copy that, Rhino Team. Objective complete. Mop up the remaining enemy forces_.”

“On it,” Tag confirmed, hitting a Centurion with a biotic charge and shooting a trooper in the head with his Executioner’s pistol.

Rhino Team had lost their team leader, but they had completed their first on-site objective, eliminated an enemy platoon without much trouble, and were holding strong. It was only when Ollie’s Vindicator ran dry that things began to go wrong.

“Shit, gun’s dry,” the Talon engineer radioed, firing an arrow through a Centurion’s eye socket. “Knight, where are you?”

“Lower labs,” Knight replied, gunfire audible in the background. “Got a turret pinning me down. Can you flank them?”

“On it,” Ollie said, drawing his sidearm, a heavily modified M-4 Shuriken. “Tag, what’s your status?”

“Heavily engaged on the landing pad,” the krogan replied. “I can hold.”

“Copy,” Ollie confirmed, jogging down the hall. “Knight, I’m coming down the hallway now, I’ll be coming out behind the turret.” He generated a clutch of armor-piercing arrows, readying his omni-bow. Diving out the end of the hallway, he let the arrows fly directly into the back of the turret, an explosion resulting as the turret was damaged beyond repair. Rolling to his feet behind a console, Ollie opened fire with his Shuriken, pulsing the trigger and sending Cerberus troopers scrambling.

Knight popped up and opened fire with his Harrier, catching them in a crossfire. Ollie switched his Shuriken to his off hand, firing one-handed as he fired a spread of arrows from his omni-bow. Generating a Cain mine, Ollie lobbed it over his shoulder, covering his back as he rapped the machine pistol against his wrist, ejecting the spent heat sink.

“Clear here,” Ollie reported. “Tag, we’re moving to support, hang in there.”

“No need,” the Krogan replied. “Clear here. Pushing deeper into the upper lab.” Ollie nodded, signaling Knight and lobbing another Cain mine down the hall, blocking a doorway moments before a Nemesis and two Centurions went through it. The resulting explosion consumed them, and Ollie put a burst into the pile of bodies as they passed by.

Knight deployed his whips, smashing down on a cluster of Cerberus troops who were firing through a smokescreen. Kicking one who tried to rise in the head, Knight shot him in the base of the skull, before snapping his arm out, ripping a Guardian’s shield out of his hand before Ollie shot him in the head.

“Who’s left?” Ollie called. “Olly olly oxen-bitch!”

“ _Sensors indicate one enemy remaining_ ,” Control said.

“Copy,” Ollie replied, hearing a thumping noise. “The fuck is that?” He ducked as a chunk blasted out of the wall next to him. “Fuck! Atlas!”

The mech in question fired again, and Knight charged, knocking a chunk of the mech’s shields out and running past the mech as it fired again. “Ollie! Draw its fire!”

“Got it!” Ollie lobbed a Cain mine that detonated on the mech’s shields, and the mech turned, firing on him. Ollie hissed as his shields blanked out, and he ducked behind a console. “Okay, I got his attention! What’s the next step of your plan?”

“Atlas mechs have a giant exhaust port on the back,” Knight said, opening fire on the red-hot vent. “It’s a massive weak spot.”

“Right,” Ollie said, pushing himself off the floor as his shields came back online. “Oi! Fuckface! Down here!” Opening fire with his Shuriken, Ollie watched as his rounds pinged harmlessly off the mech’s shields. “Crap.” Generating another Cain mine, Ollie dropped to the ground as another shot sailed over his head, taking out his shields again. Scrambling down the length of the console, Ollie slid the mine along the floor of the lab, sending it in between the mech’s legs. The mech fired, knocking Ollie flat on his back, blood spurting from a shoulder wound. The Talon mercenary’s cry of pain was drowned out by the detonation of the mine, and Knight swore, reloading.

“Ollie, hang in there, I’m coming,” he said, charging the mech and staggering it. Sliding the last five meters to his friend’s side, Knight pressed a packet of medigel into his hand. “We got this thing, stay alive.”

Switching to his Piranha, Knight sprinted at the mech, firing at the Atlas’s shoulder joint. The armor shattered, staggering the mech and resetting it’s attack protocols as an automatic systems check ran. Knight shifted his aim to the knee joint and kept pumping rounds into the mech, blasting away chunks of armor after Ollie’s mine had finally brought down its shields. The armored shattered and the mech staggered again, falling to one knee as the other leg collapsed, unable to support the weight. The pilot frantically punched the control panel in front of him, the canopy opening and letting him jump free as the mech exploded. Knight put two rounds from his Piranha into the pilot, before turning to check on Ollie.

“Hey, Ollie,” Knight said. “You okay?”

Ollie coughed, shaking his head.

Knight toed him with his boot. “Still alive?”

Ollie nodded, rolling over. The vanguard extended a hand, and Ollie took it gratefully, grabbing his weapon as Knight pulled him to his feet. “Head’s ringing like a church bell and my arm hurts like hell, but I’m okay.”

“Good,” Knight said grimly. “Because this isn’t over yet.” They heard the cannon-like report of Tag’s pistol, and turned to see the krogan standing over a Centurion’s body that was now missing most of its head. “Problems, big guy?”

“Something you learn on Tuchanka,” Tag hollered back. “In those moments when you’re not sure if what you’ve just fought is really dead, don’t get stingy with your bullets.”

“He’s got a point there,” Ollie said. Knight nodded, drawing his sidearm, and shot a nearby Engineer’s corpse. The body twitched, and Knight fired again. Ollie switched his Vindicator to single-shot, firing a round into a Nemesis’s skull.

“ _Rhino Team, this is Control, you’ve got another wave incoming_ ,” Control radioed.

“Control, Rhino Team, copy that,” Ollie replied, pressing two fingers to his earpiece. “Don’t suppose you can tap in a replacement trooper, we lost our team leader about ten seconds after we arrived and we’re starting to have some trouble.”

“ _Rhino Team, a new operator is en route_ ,” Control said.

“Contact,” Tag growled, his biotics flaring as he charged into the midst of a fresh Cerberus squad. An assault trooper died under his impact, and Tag headbutted another, pulverizing his helmet and shattering the man’s skull. Backpedaling up the stairs, Tag fired from the hip with the Wraith, pumping round after round into the Centurion leading the squad. The man dropped, and Tag fired the last round from the shotgun into the final assault trooper’s chest, sending the corpse skidding backwards.

Another squad of assault troopers and centurions headed up the stairs, and Tag dropped the shotgun, drawing both pistols and opening fire. Heavy-caliber rounds tore into the troopers, only for both weapons to run dry when several men were still standing. There was a moment’s pause as Tag and the remaining Cerberus troops looked at each other. “Crap,” Tag said, before detonating his barrier. The Cerberus men were knocked off their feet, yanked into the air by the biotic force, and Tag took the time to reload before they hit the ground. Holstering the Carnifex, he held his personal sidearm in both hands, methodically unloading a massive heavy-caliber round into each man’s head. Tag ducked as an Atlas fired, the near miss close enough to blank out his barriers, and crammed as much of his bulk as he could behind a console. Activating his barrier again, Tag sprinted for the hallway, stumbling as another shot from the Atlas caught him in the back.

“ _Hang in there, Rhino Team_ ,” Control radioed. “ _We’re sending in reinforcements_.”

“That better be some reinforcement, Control,” Ollie replied, spotting the shuttle coming in. “We’re taking a hell of a lot of fire here!”

The shuttle hovered a foot off the ground, and the door hissed open, before a pair of heavy boots hit the ground. Deep blue armor plating on a T5-V battlesuit repelled incoming fire as the soldier strode forward, a Revenant LMG shouldered and blazing away.

A smooth baritone voice came from inside the massive battlesuit. “Commander Hashim Al-Sayf, Alliance Marines, N7 Destroyer, reporting for duty, Control. What do you want destroyed, and when?”

“ _Commander, Rhino Team is onsite and taking heavy fire. They need support and fast. You will take command of Rhino Team and complete the mission._ ”

“Copy, Control. Consider it done.”

“Who are you?” Ollie asked, firing off another clutch of arrows and catching a Phantom in the chest, knocking her flat on her back. Aiming with his Vindicator, he put a burst under her chin. He looked the giant man up and down. “ _What_ are you?”

“Commander Hashim Al-Sayf, N7 Destroyer,” he replied, standing up and opening up on fully automatic with his Revenant. “I’m your backup.”

“Just you?” Ollie asked. “We’re kind of outnumbered here.”

Hashim looked over the edge of the barricade and shrugged. “If you want to head back, I can handle this.”

Ollie stared at him. “Oh, _hell_ no.” Standing up, he opened fire with carefully controlled bursts, knocking out a Centurion’s shields and downing two troopers beside him. Smacking the expended thermal clip from his weapon, he snapped out his wrist, a Cain Mine flying from his omni-tool and landing on the Centurion’s breastplate, immediately detonating.

“That’s more like it,” Hashim said approvingly, firing his Revenant one-handed downrange while looking at his omni-tool. A mounted Hawk Missile launcher mounted on his shoulder powered up and deployed, a missile spitting out and reducing a Nemesis to bloody chunks. “You Talon Company?”

“Yeah,” Ollie said, reloading his assault rifle as Hashim fired on fully-automatic, a Centurion staggering and thrashing as rounds punched through his armor. “You know us?”

“I’ve fought more Talon mercs than I have batarians, and I was in the Skyllian Blitz,” Hashim said, his Hawk launcher firing again and destroying a turret as an Engineer tried to deploy it. The secondary explosion took out the Engineer and the Assault Trooper next to him.

“Kill me later, we’ve got work to do,” Ollie replied. “Meantime, call me Ollie.”

“Ollie, I need you to move up,” Hashim said. “Flank left, I’m going to keep them pinned down here.”

“You got it,” Ollie acknowledged. Lobbing a Cain mine, he headed up a set of stairs, moving into an upper lab section and finding himself directly behind a trio of Cerberus troopers that had Knight pinned down. He prepped a Cain mine, drawing his Shuriken. “Oh _boys_!” The troopers turned, only to have Ollie lob the Cain mine onto the face of the center trooper. The man flailed as the mine deployed, before the explosive went off, the blast consuming him and the man next to him. Ollie absently hosed the survivor down with Shuriken fire, walking down the stairs. “You’re clear, Knight. Come with me.”

“On your six,” Knight said, switching to his Harrier.

“Boss, I picked up a friend, we’re on their left flank. Watch your fire.”

“Please, I killed them right after you left,” Hashim scoffed. “I’m pushing deeper into the – oh, hi.” He came around the corner, his Revenant leveled. “You realize that that’s a Dragoon, right?”

“I’m not with Cerberus,” Knight answered. “I was with them back when Dragoons were Project Phoenix operatives, sure, but I left when they started implanting people.”

“Hey, you mind setting the discussion aside for later and actually killing someone?” Tag roared, snapping a Centurion’s neck. “I feel like I’m hogging all the kills!”

Ollie jerked his head back as a Nemesis’s shot nearly took it off. “Sniper.”

“Yeah, I got this,” Hashim said, switching weapons. “Bitch can’t hide from a Black Widow.”

“She’s still in cover,” Ollie said, watching carefully. “Wait until she-” He broke off as Hashim fired, the Nemesis flying back, most of her head missing. “What the hell?”

“High-velocity barrel,” Hashim said, firing again and blowing a Guardian’s leg off midway down the calf. The man fell, and Knight finished him with a burst. “This thing laughs at cover.” He spotted another Guardian, firing again, directly through the center of the shield. The man collapsed, a large chunk taken out of his midsection, and Hashim reloaded.

“Why don’t we all go home and let him finish this by himself?” Ollie asked.

“You’d walk away from a fight like this?” Knight challenged.

Ollie glared at him for a moment. “I know you’re playing me, but you’re right. _Game on_.” Standing up, he ripped off several bursts from his Vindicator, before switching it to his other hand, bringing up his omni-bow and spearing several Cerberus troopers with arrows.

“Charging,” Knight warned, a biotic corona flaring to life around him. He blasted into a cluster of Cerberus troops, his lashes slamming down and knocking bodies around as Tag charged into the fray. Lashes and crushing melee blows left the entire squad lying on the ground, limbs and necks twisted at unnatural angles. “And that’s how it’s done,” Knight growled. “Any questions?”

“Yeah, you missed one,” Ollie replied, spearing a Nemesis through the forehead with an arrow as Hashim switched back to his Revenant.

“That’s why I keep you around,” Knight said, looking over his shoulder at the dying sniper.

“ _Sensors show enemy is regrouping, stay alert,_ ” Control warned.

“Copy, Control,” Hashim radioed back. “Okay, quick meet and greet. Commander Hashim Al-Sayf, Systems Alliance Marines, N7 Destroyer specialist. I know that you’re Ollie, Talon Company.”

Ollie nodded, lobbing a Cain mine over his shoulder. “Ollie Kennedy, Talon Engineer. Whatever you need, boss.”

“Louis Knight, Project Phoenix vanguard. Ex-Cerberus. Systems Alliance irregular.”

Tag walked up, reloading his looted shotgun. “Ganar Tag. Ex-Blood Pack. Krogan vanguard.” Hashim shook hands with each of them, his machine gun held in his off hand. “Just point me at something you want dead.”

Knight snorted. “Yeah, if you want it and everything within a hundred yards dead.”

Ollie snickered, slapping a Cain mine onto a doorframe at knee height. “He likes to be thorough.” Tossing another one upwards, he ensured that the explosive bonded itself to the ceiling.

“I’ll keep this simple, boys,” Hashim said. “You follow me, you listen to my orders, and I promise not to throw your lives away. You keep me alive, I’ll keep you alive.” He looked at the other three. “That work for you guys?”

“I can do that,” Knight shrugged.

“Cooperation’s not really a krogan thing, but I’ve fought an N7 marine before,” Tag said. “It’s not something I want to do again.”

Ollie was silent for a moment. “Yeah, I can’t do that.”

“Then you’re no good to me,” Hashim replied.

“Relax, boss, I’m fucking with you,” Ollie said cheerfully. “You keep me from getting shot up too bad, I’ll watch your back. Or front. Or sides. Whatever.”

“He always talk this much?” Hashim muttered to Knight.

“As long as I’ve known him, yeah,” Knight replied.

“Oh. Joy.”

Control’s voice rang in their headsets. “ _Sensor feeds indicate the enemy is preparing for another attack, get ready._ ”

“Back on the clock,” Ollie said, racking the charging handle on his Vindicator. A fresh thatch of concussive arrows generated on his armor.

“You,” Hashim said, pointing at Ollie. “You stick with me. Knight, Tag, you do your vanguard thing. Keep mobile, keep them off-balance, sow some chaos.”

“I can do that,” Knight said. “Tag, you head downstairs, I’ll take the upper lab.”

Hashim checked his Revenant over, nodding as his Hawk launcher rendered a Centurion down to base components.

The next several minutes were a cakewalk for Rhino Team, with Cerberus troopers entering the lab section only to be smashed under biotic attacks, speared with arrows, blown to pieces, or just plain shot to death. Guardians fell under carefully aimed attacks or flanking maneuvers, Nemesis snipers were dodged and then counter-sniped, and Assault Troopers were slaughtered en masse.

Then things got complicated.

“Atlas,” Knight said, falling back as the mech pushed into the labs. He prepared to throw himself into another biotic charge, but stopped upon seeing more motion through the haze from a Centurion’s smoke grenade. “Shit, wait, there’s two of them.” He ducked as the mechs opened fire, hitting the deck as fire blasted over his head. Looking around, he spotted an Engineer entering the room from the opposite door and charged, killing the man on impact and executing a tactical withdrawal.

On the other end of the lab, things weren’t much better. “We’re taking too much fire here,” Hashim said calmly, poking his side around the corner long enough for his Hawk launcher to get a shot off. “Anyone got any bright ideas?” A Guardian came around the corner, and Hashim fired his Black Widow at close range, the massive round punching cleanly through the shield and splattering the Guardian’s torso. “Preferably before we get overwhelmed?

“I got one, but it’s kinda crazy,” Ollie said. “We could just go the other direction.”

“No dice,” Knight said, backing down the stairs, firing. “We got a couple of Atlas mechs coming this way.” He ducked as one returned fire, before giving the mech the finger.

“Rock and a hard place, boss,” Ollie summarized.

Another Guardian came around the corner, and Knight’s arm snapped out, a biotic field ripping the shield out of the Cerberus shock trooper’s hand. Tag grabbed the man by the front of his armor and headbutted him, snapping the Guardian’s neck. Tag sprinted from cover, grabbing the dropped shield on the way, and slid to cover on the opposite side of the hallway. Hefting the looted shield, he drew his borrowed Carnifex, imitating the Guardian’s stance. Sidestepping back across the path as fire slammed into the shield, Tag fired, dropping a Centurion’s shields before he stepped behind cover again.

“Here,” he said, shoving the shield into Ollie’s hands. “Hold this.” Hefting the dead Guardian’s body in front of him like a shield, Tag stepped out from cover, bullets slamming into the corpse and being stopped by its still-active barriers.

“Ollie, move to support,” Hashim ordered. “Knight, you and me are going to take out those mechs.”

“You realize I don’t get a missile launcher like you, right?” Knight asked.

“I’ll keep their attention and draw their fire. You just do as much damage as you can.”

Ollie switched the shield to his off hand, charging his omni-bow as Tag moved up. The krogan had the corpse he was using as a shield in one hand and his Tempest in the other, and was busily hosing down a Centurion as the corpses shields crackled and failed. Tag threw the body aside, charging at almost point-blank range into the injured Centurion’s face. A headbutt sent the Cerberus squad leader sprawling backwards, helmet twisted at a sickening angle.

Ollie had speared several troopers through the chest by then, launching barrages of arrows in between moving around to keep the shield between himself and the enemy. Fire smacking into the polycrystalline-composite shield kept him curled up behind it, drawing fire even as he struggled to lift the massive shield in one hand. “Now I know why Guardians have hydraulics in their armor,” he muttered, shifting the shield to bear its weight on his shoulder. Lobbing a Cain mine blindly, he heard screams as the explosive went off. “Boss, we’re holding them here. Your back is covered.”

“Copy,” Hashim said, firing in tightly controlled bursts. His Hawk launcher spat another missile out, the projectile detonating against the Atlas’s shields. “Knight, now would be a great time!”

Knight popped up behind a console on the right flank, a biotic corona surrounding him as he charged at the rear Atlas. As he impacted, his lashes deployed, and he let loose a crushing downward smash, before drawing his Piranha, emptying the entire magazine into the vulnerable point on the Atlas’s back, knocking out the mech’s shields. Hashim shifted his fire, smashing the protective armor on the weakened Atlas’s shoulders, knees, and crotch as his Hawk launcher hit the other Atlas with another missile. Hashim sidestepped as the closer mech returned fire, the shot clipping the edge of his shields. The second one hit him square in the chest, knocking his battlesuit’s shields down to half strength.

 “Knight, I’m pinned down here,” Hashim said, backpedaling around a corner as the Atlas’s third shot shattered his shields.

The rear Atlas exploded as Knight reloaded his Piranha. “Rear Atlas is down. Drawing the other one’s fire.”

Hashim grinned behind his helmet as his barriers came back online. “Don’t get yourself killed, Knight.”

“Doing my best,” Knight replied, his voice strained. He rolled forward, sliding past the remaining Atlas as it turned to fire at him. He fired several shots into the back of the mech’s knee joint, jogging around the mech as it kept turning, trying to bring him into its weapon’s firing line.

Hashim brought his assault rifle up to fire, only to lower it. “Knight, I don’t have a clear shot with you doing that.”

“I think I got this one, Commander,” Knight said, slapping another expended thermal clip out of his weapon. “Just cover-” he cried out as a Nemesis’s shot blew straight past his barriers and took a chunk out of his thigh. His jog turned into a skid, and Knight crumpled over a console, flinging himself bodily over it to get to cover. “Fuck! I’m hit!”

“How bad?” Hashim asked, suppressing the sniper with Revenant fire. His Hawk launcher nailed the Atlas in the back, drawing its attention.

“Bitch blew a hole in my thigh,” Knight grunted. “I’m bleeding bad here. Applying medigel.”

The thermal clip expended, Hashim switched weapons, aiming carefully with his Black Widow and putting a round through the sniper’s cover. The Nemesis collapsed from behind the console, most of her chest a pulped mess and her implants self-destructing. “Stay in cover,” Hashim ordered, emptying his sniper rifle’s magazine into the Atlas. “I’ll come to you.”

“Knight, you okay?” Ollie hollered, firing another clutch of arrows. A Centurion staggered and clutched at the bolts sticking out of his chest, collapsing as blood gushed from his wounds.

“Stay where you are, Ollie, I’ll live,” Knight replied. “Probably.”

“Focus, Talon,” Tag bellowed, punching an Engineer in the chest and knocking him over a railing. “Do what you’re paid for!” Charging, the krogan crushed a Nemesis against a wall, turning and headbutting an Assault Trooper. The man’s helmet crumpled inward, and blood spurted through the cracks.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ollie replied, dropping the shield and shaking out a sore shoulder. Opening up with his Vindicator, he started knocking out shields before Tag impacted his targets, unprotected armor and flesh folding under the crushing force of a biotic charge. Generating a cluster of concussive arrows, Ollie fired them in a wide spread, knocking several Assault Troopers flat on their backs. One stumbled backwards into a wall, and Tag fired his Executioner pistol into his face at point-blank range as he passed by. “Commander, we’re wrapping up here. You need any help?”

Hashim dodged another shot from the Atlas, his Revenant blazing away. “Just dealing with this last asshole. Er, Atlas.”

Ollie snorted. “Copy, boss.”

“Knight, you still breathing?” Hashim said, emptying the Revenant’s magazine. The Atlas was badly damaged, smoke streaming from various crippled subsystems, but the mech was still operational. The Hawk launcher spat another missile out as he reloaded.

“Sort of,” Knight slurred. “Lost a lot of blood. Medigel stopped it, but I need a minute.” Hashim started sidestepping, heading towards Knight’s position. He spotted another Nemesis taking aim and ripped off a short burst, splattering the sniper’s head across the wall.

Then the Atlas fired again, the shot clipping Hashim on the side of his helmet. Hashim found himself flat on his back, his ears ringing and his faceplate cracked. He coughed, spitting out blood from a bitten tongue, the glob splattering across the inside of his helmet. “Fuck that hurt,” he groaned, firing blindly with his Revenant. He heard his Hawk system ping through the ringing in his ears, and the launcher fired again, the detonation louder than usual. Hashim shook his head, pitching over the console and landing next to Knight.

“You okay, Commander?” Knight asked.

“Feel like someone dropped a mountain on my head,” Hashim groaned, deploying a packet of medigel. “Can you fight?”

“Yeah,” Knight groaned. “Been fiddling with my armor’s support system.” He poked his head over the console, looking around. “Hey, you got the other Atlas.”

“Oh good,” Hashim said, struggling to his feet. “You good to go?”

Knight stood, gingerly putting weight on his leg. “Gotta hand it to Cerberus engineers, their armor designs can keep you fighting.”

“Let’s finish the mission,” Hashim said. “Ollie, Tag, status?”

“We’re just mopping up here,” Ollie replied.

As if on cue, Control chimed in. “ _Sensors indicate that was the last of that wave._ ”

“How many waves has that been?” Knight asked. “Four, maybe five?”

“Five,” Ollie said as the team regrouped. “Knight, you look like hammered crap, man.”

“Oh good,” Knight replied. “I’d hate to feel this awful and have it just be my secret.” He leant against the wall. “I’m about seventy percent capable. I can fight.”

“Tag, how you doing?” Hashim asked.

“No complaints, Commander,” Tag said, loading fresh thermal clips into his weapons. A salvaged Harrier hung off a sling he had looped over his chest.

“Figure you got enough guns there, Tag?” Knight asked.

“Nope,” Tag replied bluntly.

There was a moment’s pause, before Knight went on. “Anyway. Ollie, how’s the arm?”

“Throbbing along merrily,” Ollie grumbled. “Let’s wrap this up and go home.”

Hashim eyed the inside of his helmet, watching as the automatic repair systems finally finished fixing the crack on his visor. His HUD reasserted itself, and he rapped on the side of his helmet until the displays stopped fritzing. “Anyone low on medigel or ammo packs?”

“Three packets here,” Tag said.

“Two,” Knight said.

“Four,” Ollie said.

“Here,” Hashim said, passing a pair of medigel packs over to Knight. “I’ve still got three to spare.”

“Thanks, Commander,” Knight said gratefully, feeding the packets into holders on his armor.

“ _Rhino Team, drone feeds indicate they’re gearing up for another strike._ ”

“Copy, Control,” Hashim radioed. “We’ll hold out.”

“ _Rhino Team, we’ve detected useful data on a local server. Establish an uplink and upload the data._ ” A marker popped up on their heads-up displays.

“On it, Control, moving out,” Hashim said. “Rhinos, saddle up, we’ve got a job to do. Knight, Tag, take point. Ollie, on me.”

“Got your back, boss,” Ollie said, generating a group of armor-piercing arrows.

Knight stuck to the left, Tag moving right as the two vanguards led the way into the upper labs, Knight making a beeline for the console and crouching next to it. “Control, Rhino Three, establishing uplink.”

“ _Uplink looks good, Rhino. Keep close to the server, your omni-tools are powering the upload._ ”

Tag reinforced his biotic barriers, readying the looted assault rifle. “Commander, we’ll have to hold this point.”

“We’re going to be sitting ducks,” Ollie groaned, sticking a Cain mine to a doorway. Generating another, he stuck it just inside a blind corner, grinning as it deployed. “This door’s closed.”

“Good,” Hashim said. “Now get over here. We got contact.” Drawing his Black Widow, Hashim blew a pair of Assault Troopers in half.

“ _Continue the upload, we need that data,_ ” Control urged.

Ollie looked around. “Did anyone step outside the broadcast area?”

“No, we’re all here,” Knight said, clipping an Engineer in the neck with a short burst from his Harrier.

“Then what’s up Control’s ass?”

“Lock it down,” Hashim said, firing again and punching through a Guardian’s shield. The man gasped as his lungs began filling with blood and collapsed. The last shot of the magazine took a Centurion’s head off.

“Kick-ass,” Ollie said, dropping a group of Assault Troopers with a burst of arrows. He generated another group of armor-piercing arrows with a flick of his wrist, before slapping an expended thermal clip out of his Vindicator. Peering down the sights, he paused. “Um, Knight, you are still on my right, right?”

“Yeah,” Knight said uncertainly. “Why?”

“Then what the hell is that?” Ollie asked, firing at an incoming Cerberus trooper. “Fuck me, that thing is fast.”

“Shit, that’s a Dragoon,” Knight said. “Don’t let him get close!”

“Focus fire,” Hashim ordered.

The Dragoon slid over a console, still closing at high speed, and Knight cursed, throwing himself into a biotic charge. The Dragoon staggered momentarily, and both men deployed biotic lashes, slamming downwards. Knight’s strike landed first, knocking the Dragoon flat on his back. Knight ducked as the other Cerberus troops opened fire, and he slammed the butt of his Harrier into the Dragoon’s face as he attempted to rise, before spinning the gun around and firing a burst through the trooper’s helmet. “Dragoons have weak helmets,” Knight reported. “Didn’t expect to see any here.”

“Another Dragoon, on the right!” Ollie said. His Vindicator ran dry, and he turned, his omni-bow up and charging. The Dragoon lunged, and Ollie snarled behind his faceplate as the bow released. The full burst of armor-piercing arrows slammed into the Dragoon’s face, and the shock trooper dropped like a puppet with cut strings, skidding on his face for a few meters.

“Nicely done,” Tag said, pulling out the Wraith and sending an Engineer flying back with a close-range shot to the chest.

“ _Data is half uploaded, keep going_ ,” Control radioed.

Hashim switched back to his Revenant, cutting down a pair of troopers as his Hawk launcher fired, knocking out a Centurion’s shields. The launcher cycled, the next shot taking off the Centurion’s arm just below the shoulder. A brief burst from Knight finished the man as he hit the ground.

The Cain mine behind the group detonated, and Ollie spun, finding a Cerberus squad coming up behind the group. A Guardian had been blown to pieces by the first mine, and Ollie reloaded his Vindicator as the other took out the two troopers who had been behind him. Ollie ducked behind cover, waiting with his Vindicator ready as a Centurion took point through the doorway. Ollie fired point-blank into the man’s head, and fired a tight burst of arrows through the doorway, catching another Assault Trooper in the gut. Dropping another Cain mine, Ollie pulled back, only to stagger as an Atlas’s shot caught him in the side. His shields blanked out, and Ollie dove for cover as the Atlas fired again.

“Anyone got any bright ideas?” Ollie asked, reloading his Vindicator as his shields came back online.

“Your turn,” Hashim said to Ollie.

“If you can knock out its shields, I can break that armor, no problem,” Ollie replied, generating a set of armor-piercing arrows.

“On it,” Hashim replied, switching to his assault rifle and checking it over. Shouldering the weapon, he ducked out of cover and opened fire on full-auto, dozens of overload rounds chewing into the Atlas’s shields. The mech shuffled, bringing its cannons to bear on Hashim. The N7 operative ducked back behind cover as a shot from the mech’s cannon took a chunk out of the corner of the barricade. “Flank left,” he ordered. “That thing is going to walk right over us if we stay here.”

“Well what about you?” Ollie asked.

“I’m going to draw their fire,” Hashim ordered, standing upright. A deep, booming voice issued from his armor. “ ** _Devastator Mode Engaged_**.”

“Devastator mode?” Ollie echoed. In response, Hashim opened up on fully automatic, firing from the hip. The Revenant blazed away faster than usual, rounds thumping into the Atlas’s shields. “Holy _shit_!”

“Move!” Knight bellowed, firing at the Atlas. Ollie sprinted left as the Atlas turned to face Hashim, its shields rapidly blinking down as the marine sidestepped a Nemesis’s shot. Knight fired a burst in response, taking down the sniper. “Not so tough now, are you bitch!”

“Focus fire on the Atlas!” Hashim ordered. As one, Tag and Knight opened up on fully automatic with their Harriers, reloading and resuming fire as quickly as they could once their thermal clips were expended.

The Atlas’s shields finally went down, and Ollie leant out from behind cover, firing the full cluster of AP arrows into the side of the Atlas. The mech’s armor shattered, exposing a weak spot, and Ollie generated a Cain mine, sprinting from cover and dunking the explosive through the hole in the mech’s armor plating. Ollie turned to run, only for the mine to detonate. The mech exploded violently, and Ollie was flung a good twenty meters by the blast, flopping bonelessly along the ground before skidding to a halt, his armor smoldering.

“Ollie!” Knight cried.

“Talon, you conscious?” Hashim asked, eyeing the readout from the mercenary engineer’s armor. “He’s alive, but I’m not sure what shape he’s in.”

“Call me Ollie,” he rasped as his shields came back online. “Fuck, that hurt. I’m hit pretty bad here.”

“Stay alive, I’ll come to you,” Knight said.

“Belay that,” Hashim ordered. “You stay here.”

“Commander, I wasn’t asking permission,” Knight snapped.

“Good, because I didn’t give it,” Hashim shot back. “You’d be a sitting duck out there, vanguard or not. Stay here, finish the upload. I’ll get him.”

“ _Rhino Team, we got the data_ ,” Control radioed moments later. “ _Mop up the remaining enemy forces_.”

Ollie coughed, tasting blood in his mouth, and reached up to pull off his helmet, spitting out a broken tooth. Locking the helmet back into place, he looked around for his Vindicator, spotting it several meters away. He started crawling for his dropped weapon, only for a grenade to land nearby. The mercenary barely had time to sigh, “aw, fuck,” before the explosive went off, sending him sailing through the air again.

Ollie was flat on his back as an assault trooper closed on him, ready to administer a finishing blow, when the man’s upper half simply disintegrated into a cloud of meat and armor fragments. “On your feet, man,” he heard, as Hashim applied medigel to his wounds. Ollie felt fresh strength coursing through him as Hashim extended a hand. “Can you fight?”

Ollie jerked his head, generating a fresh batch of concussive arrows from his omni-tool. “I can _kill_. Thanks for the save, boss.”

Hashim’s Hawk launcher rotated on its mount, firing over his shoulder. “Whoops. Break-time’s over. Back to work, Kennedy,” he said, patting the younger man on the shoulder.

“Call me Ollie!”

Hashim shot a Centurion in the back of the head as he knocked out Knight’s barriers, sending the vanguard staggering back.  “Knight, you okay?” Knight slammed the two assault troopers he had coiled in his lashes together, before sending several bursts from his Harrier into them.

“Wounded, but I’ll live,” he replied. “Tag’s moved deeper into the labs, last I saw a couple of Atlas mechs were heading that way. He might need help.”

Hashim nodded, switching to his Revenant. “Can you hold here?”

Knight reloaded, ignoring the ache in his arm from where a Centurion had gotten a solid hit in with a stun baton through his barriers. “They won’t get past us, Commander.”

Hashim strode deeper into the lower lab, the mechanical assistance servos in his armor slowing as power was routed to his armor’s weapons systems. Sensor feeds rerouted to a high-density readout on his HUD, and he fired from the hip on fully automatic, downing Cerberus troopers left and right as he strode deeper into the lab. A Dragoon opened fire with an M-25 Hornet, bursts chopping into Hashim’s barriers. Hashim swiveled to face him, returning fire. The Dragoon charged as dozens of rounds started battering his armor, lashes deploying as the Revenant’s thermal clip ran dry. He landed a downward smash, and Hashim stomped, a specially designed mass effect generator built into his armor sending out a shockwave. The Dragoon staggered, and Hashim activated his omni-tool, a reversed omni-blade spawning from his wrist as he slashed hard, ripping a section of the Dragoon’s chest plating away and sending him staggering back. Hashim frantically reloaded as the Dragoon regained his footing, only for the Hawk launcher to intervene, a rocket punching through the Dragoon’s faceplate. The shock trooper’s head exploded, and Hashim finished the reload, pushing down a set of stairs.

“Tag, where are you?” Hashim radioed, grabbing an Engineer by the back of the armor and ripping the turret off his back, flinging the weapon platform away. Slapping the pistol out of the man’s hand and kicking him in the back of the knee, Hashim began pounding the Engineer’s face into a console. The man’s shields blanked out almost immediately, and Hashim kept slamming until the Engineer stopped twitching.

“Over here,” Tag called, leaning against a wall. “That was impressive.”

Hashim dropped the corpse, retrieving the dropped pistol and holstering it as Tag walked up a set of stairs, checking around the next level. “This section of the lab clear?”

“Nothing here but you, me, and bodies,” Tag said, kicking a Centurion’s broken leg out of the way. He staggered as a Dragoon’s lashes slammed into him from behind.

“You were saying?” Hashim said as Tag heeled around and the Dragoon struck again. Tag’s barriers went down, and the krogan growled. Hashim cursed, keeping his finger off the trigger of his weapon. “Tag, I got no shot here!”

“No need,” Tag snarled, catching one of the lashes on the Dragoon’s next strike and yanking him in close, his other fist coming up and snapping the man’s head back with a dull clunk. His other fist still wrapped in the Dragoon’s lash, Tag grabbed the man by the pauldron, slamming his helmeted forehead into the Dragoon’s face. Three more headbutts dropped the Dragoon to his knees in a daze, his helmet cracked. Tag stepped back, drawing his shotgun and putting a shot through the man’s face.

“Knight, Ollie, this section is clear,” Hashim radioed. “Status?”

Ollie cursed as his latest batch of arrows nearly hit Knight. “Engaging a Cerberus squad, nothing too bad,” he reported. “Knight’s tearing them apart, I’m just mopping up what’s left.”

“Copy,” Hashim said. “Tag, on me.” The two headed up the stairs, circling around to the main upper labs. Hashim braced his sniper rifle against his hip, spotting Knight charging the last remaining Cerberus trooper. Ducking the assault trooper’s shock baton strike, Knight cut loose a biotic blast into the man’s chest, before kicking him in the crotch, dropping him to his knees. Taking aim with his Piranha, Knight fired twice, reducing the last Cerberus trooper’s head to a soupy mess.

“ _That’s all of them_ ,” Control radioed. “ _Stay alive, Cerberus support is withdrawing. Extraction and a replacement team are inbound. ETA five minutes._ ”

“Copy,” Hashim said. “Rhinos, reload, pass around clips and medigel if you need it. Ollie, status?”

“I’ll live,” Ollie groused, generating a Cain mine and planting it at a precise location facing a doorway.

“ _Fresh wave inbound_ ,” Control reported.

Ollie grinned, watching the doorway. “And… _boom_!” A Cerberus trooper tripped the mine, the blast shredding half a squad behind him. Ollie put an arrow through the man’s helmet, blood spurting around the arrow’s shaft. A batch of armor-piercing arrows generated on his armor, and Ollie aimed carefully, before hissing and jerking his arm to the right, the arrows punching partway through a Guardian’s shield as Knight threw himself into a biotic charge, with the endpoint being a Cerberus engineer’s face.

The Guardian swept his shield around to cover his flank from Knight’s attack, but the vanguard caught the edge of the shield in one hand, shoving the muzzle of his Piranha around the edge of the shield and firing. The blast caught the Guardian in the hip, and the man staggered, wounded but not neutralized. Knight fired several more times, and the Cerberus soldier fell, even as assault troopers shoved their way forward to engage Knight.

Then the lashes came out. Bodies were thrown back or crushed under the assault as Knight slammed the dark energy-charged lashes down again and again, and the rest of Rhino team turned as Cerberus troops began storming up their flank.

“Tag, loop around to the landing pad, make sure they don’t encircle us,” Hashim ordered, hosing down the stairwell with Revenant fire. The krogan dropped a Centurion with a shot from his pistol, the cannon-like report echoing in the labs. “Ollie, you hold here, keep Knight covered. Engage at will.”

“Where you going?” Ollie asked, hitting the power cell on a turret an engineer was setting up with a burst from his Vindicator. The turret exploded, taking the engineer with it.

“Gonna go close the door, what do you think?” Hashim replied, stepping out from cover and marching forward. His boots thumped audibly with every step, and gunfire pinged off his shields and the thick composite plating of his armor as he fired in tightly controlled bursts, each burst punctuated with the sound of a Cerberus trooper hitting the ground, critically injured or dead.

Knight scrubbed the back of his gauntlet across his helmet’s faceplate, blood smearing across the display. Rolling his eyes at the failed attempt to get a clear view, he charged again, bulling into a Centurion and knocking the squad leader flat. The Cerberus officer drew a stun baton, and Knight let one of his lashes uncoil in response. The two men struck, the Centurion’s blow landing first. Electricity coursed through Knight’s body and the lash slapped the man across the hallway, the Centurion’s armor creaking as it impacted. Knight drew his Harrier, kicking the Centurion in the side as he tried to get up, before aiming carefully and putting a single round into his head.

“ _Rhino team, Control. Extraction in three minutes._ ”

Ollie growled as his shields got knocked out for the fourth time in less than a minute. He had been trading fire with a Nemesis sniper that had managed to take cover in a nook behind a console where his Cain mines couldn’t reach and stayed exposed for too short a time to use his bow, leaving him reliant on bullets. He grabbed a fallen Centurion whose corpse had landed within arm’s reach and waited until the shields reasserted themselves, before poking the corpses’s head around the display he had taken cover behind. The body’s head exploded as the Nemesis fired, and he spun out from cover, seeing the sniper moving to a new position under the mistaken assumption that Ollie’s brains had just vacated his skull at high velocity. Several bursts from his Vindicator put an end to that assumption, and Ollie reloaded before moving out, his rifle up and searching for fresh targets as he generated a clutch of concussive arrows.

Meanwhile, Tag was thoroughly enjoying life. At the moment, he was using a hapless Engineer as a bludgeon against two assault troopers, having snapped the Engineer’s neck and knocked the troopers off their feet with a biotic charge. After the two stopped squealing, he dropped the battered corpse, before charging again, punching another trooper over the railing and off the platform.

“Anyone else think this is too easy?” Tag radioed. As if in response, he spotted a blur to his side, before a blade sank into his side. Tag grunted in pain, before looking closer. “What the fuck are you?” Swinging his SMG around, he opened up on full auto, heavy rounds punching into biotic barriers. The Phantom twisted the blade free, before stabbing him again from a different angle. “That’s not gonna work,” Tag chuckled, coughing blood onto the inside of his helmet, before slamming his head into the Phantom’s skull. The Phantom’s barriers collapsed, and she danced away, cloaking. Moments later, he felt the blade pierce his back, and rolled his eyes, before wrenching his arm over his shoulder before he discharged his Executioner’s Pistol directly into the Phantom’s face. Blood, brain matter, and chunks of composite armor splattered across the landing pad, and Tag ripped the blade free even as he spotted an Atlas stomping around the corner from the lower labs. “Need support,” he radioed. “Got an Atlas rolling in and I’m wounded.”

“Stay alive, we’re coming,” Hashim said. “Whoever’s closest, get that mech’s attention!”

“Dibs!” Knight said from behind the mech, discharging his Piranha directly into the Atlas’s knee joint. The two vanguards charged simultaneously, hitting the Atlas from opposite sides, and Ollie swept around the corner from the upper labs, firing his Vindicator with one hand and a burst of armor-piercing arrows with the other. Hashim came storming out of the upper labs, a searing orange glow surrounding his right gauntlet. A trio of grenades blasted from his wrist, hitting the Atlas’s canopy and blasting it to shrapnel. The mech dropped, and Knight grabbed Tag’s elbow, hauling the wounded krogan away from the fallen Atlas moments before it exploded.

“Knight!” Ollie bellowed, losing sight of the vanguard in the explosion.

The smoke cleared, and Knight sat up, his armor smoldering. “Ow. Ow ow. Fuck. _Fuck_!”

“You all right?”

“Yeah, just peachy,” Knight grumbled.

Ollie walked up, looking him over. “Anything broken?”

Knight stood up, dusting himself off. “Just my inner peace.” He stood up straight, groaning. “Anyone see my gun?”

“Over here,” Tag said, tossing him the Piranha. “I’m injured but I’ll live. Some little bitch with a sword stabbed me.”

“Phantoms,” Knight said. “Damn, I didn’t realize the Illusive Man was actually fielding them.” At the questioning looks from his team, Knight explained. “Some of the scientists I knew talked about the program. They were so ridiculous I didn’t think they would actually get past the development phase.”

“Control, status?” Hashim radioed.

“ _Sensors show all clear_ , _Rhino Team_. _Extraction is one minute out_.”

“Rhinos, rally up!” Hashim ordered. “We’re getting the hell out of here. Is that Phantom’s corpse intact?”

“More or less,” Tag grunted, hauling the body over by the ankle.

“Intelligence will want to autopsy it,” Hashim said. “You said it used a sword?”

“This,” Tag replied, holding up the discarded blade. “Went right through my shields.”

“Shit,” Hashim said, examining the weapon. “This looks like the blades used by N7 Shadows and Slayers. This is bad news.” He spotted the shuttle pulling into a hover, a pair of asari and a pair of turians hopping out and spreading out after a nod to the Rhinos. “Time to move.” The group quickly strapped in, hauling the Phantom’s corpse with them.

“ETA to the _Vancouver_ , ten minutes,” the pilot said over the intercom.

“Copy,” Hashim said, before catching Knight’s attention. “So I think you’ve proven that we don’t have to worry about any lingering ties to Cerberus with you.”

Knight shook his head. “I was never implanted with Reaper tech. Once we saw people start showing up with glowing eyes and looking increasingly huskified, a lot of the scientists and a lot of the subjects in the Project Phoenix program bailed.” Knight grinned. “And we took a lot of the data with us. Left the Illusive Man nothing but a crater where the facility used to be, and made him start over when he was making the Dragoons.”

“Nice!” Ollie said.

Knight went on, “We made contact with Allied intelligence, got ourselves debriefed and interrogated and tested for indoctrination. The scientists got shuffled off to some secure facility someplace. The Phoenix subjects got the option to join up with the N7 Ops program, or be folded into the Alliance military.”

“No option to just walk away?” Ollie asked. “Damn, that’s cold.”

“Every one of us chose the N7 Operations program, adepts and vanguards alike,” Knight said. “I have to wonder whether it was because we realized the views we held were wrong, or because we just really didn’t want to work for the Alliance.”

Hashim nodded. “I don’t wonder about your loyalties. Although I have to ask about your sympathies. We need a united front if we’re going to beat the Reapers, and Cerberus is crazier than I thought if they expect the Alliance to just hand over power to them.”

“I believe that humanity can’t just roll over and let the Council walk all over them,” Knight said firmly. “But I also believe that _they_ aren’t a united front either. Seems like the salarians, the asari, and the turians are just as intent on screwing each other over as they are on screwing humanity over. Everyone’s out for themselves. And frankly, even if humanity really does need some sort of champion to stand up to the Council, Cerberus is not what we’re looking for. A man who is willing to jack his own troops up on Reaper tech and start killing Alliance admirals is not the guy you want to put in charge of the human race.”

“So what are you looking for, then?” Hashim asked.

“I’m just looking to be a hero,” Knight replied.

“You know what you get for being a hero, Knight?” Hashim said. “You get shot at. You get injured, maybe killed. Most people would never know the difference, most of the time. But if you survive, you get to sleep at night. You get to know that you did the right thing, when it mattered. Someone else gets to live because of something that you did. I don’t spill blood for glory, that’s a krogan thing, and while I may fight like one, I am not a krogan. I do what I do because I can. Because I should. And because damn it, I’m good at it.”

There was a moment’s pause. “Will you marry me?” Ollie asked.

“Maybe later, sweetheart,” Hashim said. “We’ve got a few hundred thousand bad guys to punch in the dick first.”

“So what’s the deal with this thing?” Tag asked, kicking the body on the floor.

“Phantoms,” Knight said. “They can cloak, they’re damned fast, and they use swords.”

“Sounds like an N7 Shadow,” Hashim mused. “Implants – not Reaper-based, for the Alliance – to increase speed, reflexes, and agility, and cloaking abilities. A monomolecular blade that cuts through shields.”

“Sounds like your old boss has people in the Alliance R&D,” Ollie said.

“Just another thing to worry about,” Hashim sighed. “We’ll deal with it when we get back to the _Vancouver_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is what keeps me interested in continuing. I'll respond to comments in a timely manner as best I can, but even kudos are appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> It's impossible to overstate how much feedback means.


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